Скачать или смотреть AP reporter discusses capitol rioter sentencing

(19 Jul 2021) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4336029

A Florida man who breached the U.S. Senate chamber carrying a Trump campaign flag was sentenced Monday to eight months behind bars, the first resolution for a felony case in the Capitol insurrection.
Paul Allard Hodgkins apologized and said he was ashamed of his actions on Jan 6.
Speaking calmly from a prepared text, he described being caught up in the euphoria as he walked down Washington's most famous avenue, then followed a crowd of hundreds into the Capitol.
Prosecutors had asked for Hodgkins to serve 18 months behind bars, saying in a recent filing that he, "like each rioter, contributed to the collective threat to democracy" by forcing lawmakers to temporarily abandon their certification of Joe Biden's 2020 election victory over President Donald Trump and to scramble for shelter from incoming mobs.
In pronouncing the sentence, Judge Randolph Moss said that Hodgkins had played a role, if not as significant as others, in one of the worst episodes in American history.
Still he chose to give Hodgkins a year less in prison.
"The judge sort of came down in the middle. He didn't entirely buy that Hodgkins role was miniscule. But he also didn't quite buy that, the prosecutor's argument that he was part in parcel of an act of domestic terrorism," AP Legal Affairs writer, Michael Tarm, said.
The sentencing could set the bar for punishments of hundreds of other defendants as they decide whether to accept plea deals or go to trial. Hodgkins and others are accused of serious crimes but were not indicted, as some others were, for roles in larger conspiracies.
"The judge has certainly put people on notice. People who committed felonies are going to get jail time," Tarm said.
Hodgkins was never accused of assaulting anyone or damaging property. And prosecutors said he deserves some leniency for taking responsibility almost immediately and pleading guilty to the obstruction charge.
But they also noted how he boarded a bus in his hometown of Tampa bound for a Jan. 6 Trump rally carrying rope, protective goggles and latex gloves in a backpack — saying that demonstrated he came to Washington prepared for violence.
His lawyer pleaded with the judge to spare his 38-year-old client time in prison, saying the shame that will attach to Hodgkins for the rest of his life should be factored in as punishment.
The lawyer argued in court papers that Hodgkins' actions weren't markedly different from those of Anna Morgan Lloyd - other than Hodgkins stepping onto the Senate floor.
Morgan Lloyd was the first of roughly 500 arrested to be sentenced. She pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct and last month was sentenced to three years of probation.
Hodgkins' lawyer, Patrick N. Leduc, described his client as an otherwise law-abiding American who, despite living in a poorer part of Tampa, regularly volunteered at a food bank. He noted that Hodgkins is an Eagle Scout.

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