Just six months after the Jan. 6 attack, one of the earlier criminal cases involved a 49-year-old Indiana woman who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of demonstrating inside the Capitol. When it came time for sentencing, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, a prominent Reagan-appointed jurist, took the opportunity to comment on Republican efforts to rewrite the history of the insurrectionist violence.
“I’m especially troubled by the accounts of some members of Congress that January 6 was just a day of tourists walking through the Capitol,” Lamberth said in June 2021. “I don’t know what planet they were on. … This was not a peaceful demonstration. It was not an accident that it turned violent; it was intended to halt the very functioning of our government.”
Nearly three years later, the conservative judge is still at it. NBC News reported:
Senior U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, appointed to the bench by former President Ronald Reagan in 1987, said at a resentencing hearing Thursday that he is “shocked” at how prominent political figures have talked about the convicted criminals who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, calling the politicians’ remarks “preposterous” and warning that such rhetoric “could presage further danger to our country.”
While he did not mention any Republicans by name, the judge specifically referenced radical rhetoric from a variety of GOP members of Congress, including Reps. Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Elise Stefanik of New York, who recently referred to Jan. 6 criminals as “hostages.”
The defendant in this specific case was a man named James Little, who has repeatedly claimed to be a victim of political persecution.
In fact, the case has followed a curious trajectory. As a Politico report explained, Lamberth sentenced Little a couple of years ago to 60 days in prison and three years on probation. He appealed, and the case eventually returned to the judge for resentencing, even though the defendant had already served his time behind bars.
Lamberth, struck by Little’s lack of remorse and refusal to acknowledge wrongdoing, sent him to another 60 days in prison.
But the judge also took the opportunity to share some related thoughts related to, not the specific case before him, but Republican rhetoric regarding the pro-Trump riot.
“The Court is accustomed to defendants who refuse to accept that they did anything wrong. But in my 37 years on the bench, I cannot recall a time when such meritless justifications of criminal activity have gone mainstream,” Lamberth said, according to his prepared remarks.
As NBC News’ report added, the jurist also issued a stark warning: “I have been dismayed to see distortions and outright falsehoods seep into the public consciousness. The Court fears that such destructive, misguided rhetoric could presage further danger to our country.”
He went on to say, “On January 6, 2021, a mob of people invaded and occupied the United States Capitol, using force to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power mandated by the Constitution and our republican heritage. The rioters interfered with a necessary step in the constitutional process, disrupted the lawful transfer of power, and thus jeopardized the American constitutional order. … This was not patriotism; it was the antithesis of patriotism.”
The jurist concluded, “The Court does not expect its remarks to fully stem the tide of falsehoods. But I hope a little truth will go a long way.”
All of this was striking in part because of the judge who made the comments, but also because it served as a reminder that some of the most eloquent commentary on Jan. 6 has come, oddly enough, from the judiciary.
In one 2022 case, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson declared during sentencing, “People need to understand that they can’t do this, or anything like this, again. They can’t try to force their will on the American people once the American people have already spoken at the ballot box. That’s the opposite of democracy — it’s tyranny. And the threat to democracy, the dark shadow of tyranny, unfortunately, has not gone away.
“There are people who are still disseminating the lie that the election was stolen. They’re doing it today,” she continued. “And the people who are stoking that anger for their own selfish purposes, they need to think about the havoc they’ve wreaked, the lives they’ve ruined, the harm to their supporters’ families, even, and the threat to this country’s foundation.”
Similarly, in November 2021, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced a Jan. 6 rioter named John Lolos, while reflecting on the fact that the criminal was responding to Donald Trump’s call.
Mehta said at the time, “People like Mr. Lolos were told lies, told falsehoods, told our election was stolen when it clearly was not. We’re here today deciding whether Mr. Lolos should spend 30 days in jail when those who created the conditions that led to Mr. Lolos’ conduct, led to the events of Jan. 6 [haven’t been] held to account for their actions and their word.”
Speaking directly to the defendant, the judge continued, “In a sense, Mr. Lolos, I think you were a pawn. You were a pawn in a game directed and played by people who should know better.”
Five months later, after a jury convicted another Jan. 6 rioter, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton shared a few thoughts after the verdict was read. “I think our democracy is in trouble, because unfortunately we have charlatans like our former president, who doesn’t, in my view, really care about democracy but only about power,” the conservative federal jurist said in court.
Lamberth’s assessment was important, but I’m pleased to report he’s not the only member of the federal judiciary telling the truth about Jan. 6, whether defendants or their Republican champions want to hear it or not.
