Judge sentences Oath Keeper who cooperated in January 6 prosecution to probation and warns democracy is 'fragile' [View all]

Source: CNN Politics

Published 6:39 PM EST, Fri December 20, 2024


CNN — Nearly four years after the US Capitol was overtaken by Donald Trump’s supporters, the first defendant in the January 6, 2021, attack to plead guilty to seditious conspiracy was sentenced Friday to three years of probation.

Joshua James, a military vet and a former leader in the right-wing Oath Keepers militia group, was part of the brutal assault on police that day, facing off with a line of officers inside the Rotunda, where he shouted, “This is my Capitol,” and demanded that officers leave as he pushed and shoved.

“What I did at the Capitol, to those police officers, that’s not who I am,” James told the judge before sentencing. James said he would regret that day “for the rest of my life.”

Federal Judge Amit Mehta, in an apparent reference to Trump’s promise to pardon some of the January 6 defendants, said he didn’t “know how long we’ll keep doing these sentencings in the next weeks and months,” and noted that it was important for people to not forget the lawmakers, staff and police officers who were there that day. The attack, Mehta said, showed “how fragile democracy really is.”

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/20/politics/joshua-james-oath-keeper-sentenced-january-6/index.html