As the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection approaches, former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden are using the event to rally political support in contrasting ways. Trump, facing federal charges related to the riot, continues to downplay the severity of the event and praise the rioters, while Biden emphasizes the attack as a threat to democracy. Both are potentially gearing up for a 2024 election rematch, with each side accusing the other of being a danger to the nation's democratic values. Public opinion on the riot remains deeply divided along partisan lines, with a significant portion of Republicans downplaying the violence of the event.
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes faces up to 25 years in prison at sentencing Thursday in the first punishments to be handed down for seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. U.S. prosecutors asked for what would be the longest sentence by far in the rioting to deter future acts of domestic terrorism, arguing that Rhodes played a significant role in spreading doubt about the 2020 presidential election and led more than 20 other Americans to seek to use violence against the government to thwart the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden.
Patrick McCaughey III, a 25-year-old from Connecticut, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for nine offenses related to his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. McCaughey was convicted on seven felony charges, including assaulting law enforcement officers and obstruction of an official proceeding, and two misdemeanors. He pinned an officer into a doorframe with a stolen riot shield during the insurrection. The DOJ sought an almost 16-year sentence for McCaughey. Two other men, Tristan Stevens and David Mehaffie, were also convicted of crimes related to the insurrection.
