A judge ruling on the sentence for a Capitol riot defendant rebuked the Trump supporter after he tried to garner some goodwill during the hearing.
John Cameron was sentenced to three years probation and 30 days of intermittent confinement for his role in the Capitol riot, and was also fined $1,000 and an additional $500 in restitution.
During the sentencing, he tried to appeal to Senior Judge Thomas F Hogan by asking "can you guess who my favorite president is?" He answered his own question by saying "Ronald Reagan”.
Former President Ronald Reagan appointed Mr Hogan to his position.
According to The Washington Post, Mr Cameron then recited the Pledge of Allegiance in a further attempt to curry favour ahead of his sentencing.
Mr Hogan was not impressed and began to drill Mr Cameron about his choice to participate in the Capitol riot. He asked if Mr Cameron truly thought the riot was "fun”, referencing a post the man made on Facebook after the incident.
“No,” Mr Cameron said. “I picketed within the Capitol, and that was illegal. ... I would never do it again.”
The appeals to patriotism apparently frustrated Mr Hogan, who chastised Mr Cameron and said he and other participants in the riot did not deserve to call themselves patriots.
“I keep hearing from Jan 6 defendants, ‘We’re being prosecuted,’ like it’s a surprise, or ‘We’re being persecuted,’ like it’s unfair. I do not understand that psychology,” Mr Hogan said. “What irritates me most is that all of you are claiming you’re patriots; you’re not patriots when you attack the Capitol of the United States.”
The judge told Mr Cameron that he was lucky he hadn't pleaded guilty to a felony, because he would have wound up in jail.
“If you had pleaded to a felony, I would just put you in jail for a long time,” he said. “The court at least hopes that in this three-year period, you don’t engage in any such conduct again."
Nearly 900 people have been charged in connection to Capitol riot offenses thus far, making it by far the largest Justice Department investigation in the nation's history.
Thus far, only around 200 Capitol riot defendants have been sentenced, ranging from minor trespassing crimes to serious felonies including seditious conspiracy.
