Jan. 6 Rioter Who Beat Police Officer With Trump Flag Gets 46 Months
A Pennsylvania man who beat a Washington, D.C., police officer with a Trump flag during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack was sentenced Friday to 46 months in prison, federal officials said.
Howard Richardson, 72, pleaded guilty earlier this year to assaulting, resisting or impeding officers at the Capitol, according to the Department of Justice.
Advertisement
Richardson waved a flag emblazoned with Trump’s name when he breached a restricted area of the Capitol, then he used the pole to strike a police officer several times, officials said.
Richardson was arrested in November 2021 and pleaded guilty in April.
After he serves his nearly four-year prison sentence, Richardson will also be subject to three years of supervised release. He must also pay $2,000 in restitution.
The sentence is one of the longest handed down out so far in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
But Justice Department officials are seeking the longest prison sentence yet against a Jan. 6 rioter, 17 years, for ex-police officer and former Marine Thomas Webster, who was found guilty in May of five felonies and a misdemeanor for his participation in the Capitol siege, including assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer using a deadly or dangerous weapon, and engaging in an act of physical violence on Capitol grounds.
The sentence would be nearly double the longest prison sentence handed down by a court in a Jan. 6 case to date, CBS News reported.
Webster’s sentencing is scheduled for next Friday.
More than 860 people have been arrested since Jan. 6 in connection with the attack, according to the Justice Department. More than 260 of them have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.