During a sentencing hearing for a Jan. 6 defendant who pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said America is “in trouble” if its citizens don’t accept the results of legitimate elections.
Walton went on to say that he doesn't expect Donald Trump to accept defeat if he loses again in 2024 — and added that, unlike Trump, former Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore “was a man about it” when he accepted his loss in 2000.
Walton sentenced Jacob Zerkle to 24 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to the two felonies: assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, as well as civil disorder. Zerkle will also pay $2,000 in restitution and complete community service after he's released.
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As HuffPost points out, Zerkle shoved police officers, called them “traitors,” and separately chanted “hang ‘em high” during the Jan. 6 riot. While he's not accused of entering the Capitol building, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Hutton Marshall called him a “consequential member of the mob."
“I don’t think I’m very good at protesting,” Zerkle said while issuing an apology.
Walton said the crowd’s actions on Jan. 6 caused “significant harm to this country” and to law enforcement.
“We cannot exist as a peaceful society" if people reject the results of elections “because the vote didn’t go the way they wanted it to go," Walton said.
Last year, Walton said that the United States was in a “scary moment,” and that the Jan. 6 riot “still haunts us because the individuals who instigated what occurred are still engaging in the same rhetoric that resulted in the frenzy that took place on that day.”
