Federal judges expressing some concern about lenient plea deals for some Capitol riot defendants

This new BuzzFeed News article, headlined "A Judge Questioned If Capitol Rioters Are Getting Off Too Easy For 'Terrorizing Members Of Congress'," reports on some notable comments by some notable federal judges about the plea deals being given to some of the Capitol rioters.  Here are excerpts:

A federal judge on Thursday pushed back on the government’s decision to ink deals in the Capitol riot cases that involve low-level misdemeanors, questioning whether that was appropriate for people involved in “terrorizing members of Congress.”

The unusual exchange came during a plea hearing for Jack Jesse Griffith, who was charged solely with misdemeanor crimes for going into the Capitol on Jan. 6; he wasn’t accused of violence or property destruction.  As Griffith prepared to plead guilty to one count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building — a class B misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of six months in jail — US District Chief Judge Beryl Howell asked the prosecutor to explain why Griffith’s deal involved a class of crime typically reserved for people who did things like trespass in a national park at night.

“I'm just curious — does the government have any concern given the factual predicate at issue here, of the defendant joining a mob, breaking into the Capitol building through a broken door, wandering through the Capitol building and stopping a constitutionally mandated duty of the Congress and terrorizing members of Congress, the vice president, who had to be evacuated?” Howell asked.  “Does the government, in agreeing to the petty offense in this case, have any concern about deterrence?”

It was the second time this week that a judge questioned whether defendants charged in connection with Jan. 6 are getting off too lightly in plea deals, even if they’re not accused of more serious criminal activity, such as attacking police.  On Tuesday, US District Judge Reggie Walton, one of Howell’s colleagues on the federal bench in Washington, DC, briefly pondered whether he should jail two defendants who signed a deal similar to Griffith’s, given their involvement in the “atrocious act” of storming the Capitol; he ultimately allowed them to go home until they’re sentenced in October.

Griffith is the 27th defendant charged in the Jan. 6 riots to appear before a judge to plead guilty, and the 21st person to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor as part of an agreement with prosecutors — either the parading count that Griffith pleaded guilty to or disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, which also has a maximum sentence of six months in jail.

Howell in the end accepted Griffith’s guilty plea, but, like Walton, put the government and defense through several paces before she did. She asked whether the government was concerned that an agreement involving a low-level misdemeanor was enough not only to deter Griffith from participating in a similar event in the future but also the broader universe of the hundreds of people who descended on the Capitol that day.  The circumstance that led to the Jan. 6 insurrection, a presidential election, happens every four years, the judge noted.

Assistant US Attorney Mitra Jafary-Hariri and Griffith’s lawyer H. Heather Shaner defended the deal, telling Howell that Griffith had expressed interest in pleading guilty early on — something defendants throughout the criminal justice system typically get credit for — and had cooperated with law enforcement officials by turning over his devices and giving them access to his social media. Jafary-Hariri said that under those circumstances, the government decided it was “willing to resolve it this way.”

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