On Friday, November 19, a welder from Pennsylvania was sentenced to more than 14 years in prison for assaulting police officers at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Peter Schwartz, aged 49, was found guilty of beating police with a chair and using chemical spray to attack them.
The sentence is the most severe penalty yet handed down in connection with the events of January 6. Several other people who were charged with assaulting police officers on that day have received stiff sentences, including Thomas Webster, a former New York City police officer, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for swinging a metal flagpole at an officer at the Capitol.
Schwartz was sentenced by Judge Amit P. Mehta at a hearing in Federal District Court in Washington. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 24 years and six months in prison, while Judge Mehta declined to go that high, he said that his decision to issue a term of 170 months was necessary given Mr. Schwartz’s substantial history of violent offenses, and lack of remorse for his actions.
Schwartz was convicted in December 2021 of three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, one count of interfering with law enforcement officers during a civil disorder, and one of obstructing the certification of the election, which was taking place inside the Capitol on January 6.
Prosecutors alleged that Schwartz and his wife at the time made their way to “the thick of the violence” at the west terrace of the Capitol, where they “aggressively participated in the effort to overwhelm the police line.” In a text message, Schwarz claimed that he had thrown “the first chair at the cops,” adding, “I started a riot.” The prosecutors claimed that the chair he hurled created an opening in the police line, enabling hundreds of other rioters to flood the terrace as police officers retreated. Schwartz then stole a canister of pepper spray and other chemical munitions the police had left behind and used them “to attack those same officers as they desperately tried to escape the growing and increasingly violent mob.”
Prosecutors noted that Schwartz was already on probation in at least one other case involving charges of assault and illegal firearms possession. He has had nearly 40 prior convictions over more than 30 years for crimes such as assault or threatening officers.
More than two years after the attack, prosecutors told Judge Mehta, Schwarz showed no remorse for his actions, giving several interviews in which he claimed to be the victim of a biased prosecution. During one interview, Schwarz called the trial “the biggest sham I’ve ever seen in my life.”
At the hearing, Schwarz’s lawyer, Dennis Boyle, argued that his client had been steered to the Capitol on January 6 by the lies about fraud in the 2020 election told by former President Donald J. Trump and his allies. Schwarz knew little about the presidential race and got his information from bad media sources, the lawyer said, adding that the sentence prosecutors requested “reeks of revenge and retribution.”
“Mr. Schwarz is not one of these individuals; he knows he was wrong.” Schwarz himself offered only a single sentence in his statement to the court, which he read off a sheet of paper from the defense table. “I do sincerely regret the damage that Jan. 6 has caused to so many people and their lives,” he said.
But Judge Mehta seemed unconvinced, noting Schwarz had continued to appear on podcasts after his conviction, insisting that police had attacked him outside the Capitol and dismissing the charges against him as politically motivated.
“I appreciate you saying what you did today, but I don’t believe it,” Judge Mehta said.
The sentence handed to Schwarz could presage more long prison terms to come. In a separate case on the same day, prosecutors recommended 25 years in prison for Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy in November along with one of his lieutenants. The prosecutors said holding Rhodes accountable at his sentencing hearing, scheduled for May 24, would be essential to preserving American democracy. His punishment, they said, could help decide whether “Jan. 6 becomes an outlier or a watershed moment.”
About 450 of the more than 1,000 people charged so far in connection with the Capitol attack have been sentenced. Of those, the Justice Department says, slightly more than half have been ordered to serve at least some time behind bars.
In recent months, numerous convicted January 6 defendants have been complaining they are being treated unfairly and that the sentences they have received or are facing are too harsh.
Some defendants argued in their appeals that the government has been using vague legal definitions of crimes like obstruction of an official proceeding or general conspiracy statutes too broadly. They have argued that the Justice Department is treating January 6 defendants differently than those who have been charged with similar offenses during other types of unrest in recent years.
But judges have been regularly rejecting these arguments, emphasizing that January 6 was a unique event aiming to disrupt democracy. One judge rejected a defendant’s claim that he peacefully protested at the Capitol and did not engage in violence, noting that the defendant participated in a “running street battle” with police at the Capitol that lasted for roughly 53 minutes, “ending only when he retreated to a spot near a tunnel where other violent insurrectionists were waiting.”
“January 6th was unique, unlike any event in America’s recent history,” U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss wrote. “It cannot be compared to the protests and riots that occurred in the summer of 2020 in any meaningful way.”
In conclusion, Peter Schwarz’s prison sentence was 170 months which is more than 14 years. Schwarz was convicted of assaulting police with a chair and then chemical spray at the Capitol. Schwarz claimed that he was steered to the Capitol by the lies of Donald Trump and his allies. Schwarz had nearly 40 prior convictions over more than 30 years for crimes such as assault or threatening officers. Schwarz showed no remorse for his actions, giving several interviews in which he claimed to be the victim of a biased prosecution. The sentence handed to Schwarz could be indicative of more long-term sentences to come.
