Judge slams claims that Jan. 6 rioters are treated unfairly

A Texas man who joined the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6. was sentenced Monday to 45 days behind bars even though prosecutors weren’t seeking jail time, after the judge blasted comparisons between the riot that day and the Black Lives Matter protests over racial injustice. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan called it a false equivalence “to compare the actions of people protesting, mostly peacefully, for civil rights” to the mob that “was trying to overthrow the government.” She said doing so “ignores the very real danger that the Jan. 6 riots pose to the foundation of our democracy.” The judge’s remarks in the case against Matthew Mazzocco of San Antonio came days after another judge in Washington’s federal court suggested that the Justice Department was being too hard on the Jan. 6 defendants when compared to the people arrested during the protests after George Floyd’s murder. Judge Trevor McFadden, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, questioned Friday why federal prosecutors had not brought more cases against those who had taken part in the 2020 summertime protests and said the Justice Department “would have more credibility if it was even-handed in its concern about riots and mobs in this city.” He sentenced Danielle Doyle of Oklahoma to probation even though prosecutors had recommended two months of home confinement. She noted the vast majority of rioters were not arrested on Jan. 6 but were allowed to return home and that many defendants, like Mazzocco, were charged only with misdemeanors despite what she called the “premeditated decision to come to the District to try to stop the peaceful transfer of power.” Some Jan. 6 defendants and their Republican allies have claimed that the Justice Department has treated the Capitol rioters harshly because of their political views, while those who caused violence in the wake of Floyd’s killing were given leniency.