Shocking new body camera footage shows a mob of Trump supporters using a battering ram against police officers during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The footage was released in connection to the sentencing of Howard Richardson, who was condemned to 46 months in prison last month for attacking law enforcement officers during the riot, according to NBC News.
JAN. 6 COMMITTEE POSTPONES WEDNESDAY HEARING
The video shows Richardson and other rioters lifting the banner over a group of police officers who were guarding the barrier to the Capitol. The actions forced the officers to abandon their defensive posture to prevent the banner, which contained metal poles, from crushing them and allowing the rioters to storm through the barricade. Richardson also attacked a different officer with a Trump flag, the video purportedly shows.
“Richardson wrongly insisted that he carried a ‘Back the Blue’ flag on January 6 and not a Trump flag,” prosecutors said. “Apparently [unfazed] by the irony of using a pro-police symbol to attack a police officer, Richardson made this assertion even though the video footage clearly shows his flag is a blue and red ‘Trump’ flag.”
Richardson’s son is a police officer who has served in law enforcement for 20 years, according to the outlet.
Federal prosecutors argued in court that a sentence on the higher end of the guidelines was appropriate because of other previous encounters Richardson had with law enforcement. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly agreed and sentenced Richardson to 3 1/2 years as a result.
“I lost my temper,” Richardson said of Jan. 6. “Never should have done that. … There is no excuse for what I did.”
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Logan Barnhart, a bodybuilder who has appeared on the covers of romance novels, pleaded guilty Wednesday to attacking and dragging an officer on the steps of the Capitol, according to NBC. Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the right-wing Oath Keepers group, is also on trial this week for seditious conspiracy charges related to the riot.
