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Judge appointed by Trump says nonviolent Jan. 6 protestors should not face ‘serious jail time’

March 30, 2022 | | Print Article

Those who attended the events of January 6 but did not commit a violent crime in doing so should not face a serious jail sentence, according to U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, a Trump appointee.

Judge McFadden unleashed on the government for essentially holding a double standard towards political protestors.

“I know that the government believes that the January 6 cases are sui generis, and therefore can’t be compared to other cases. But I don’t agree,” he said.

“It does feel like the government has had two standards here, and I can’t abide by that,” he added, noting that before the events of January 6, he could not recall a first-time offender, accused of a nonviolent misdemeanor “sentenced to serious jail time … regardless of their race, gender or political affiliation.”

He spoke out regarding the sentencing of Jenny Cudd who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor trespassing. The prosecution suggested that McFadden sentence the former GOP mayoral candidate from Texas to a whopping 75 days in prison, with an additional year of probation. If this sounds like an outsized response, McFadden would agree.

Instead of agreeing to the prosecution’s request, he sentenced Cudd to two months of probation and a $5,000 fine, and did so while recalling the prosecution of liberal Code Pink activist Tighe Barry.

Barry was arrested by Capitol Police after standing on a chair while holding a poster and yelling at senators during the Senate Judiciary hearings for Brett Kavanaugh. The same prosecutor who recommended Cudd’s extreme sentence also recommended a sentence for Barry, but it was a much more sympathetic 10 days in prison. He eventually received a mere six-day sentence.

Barry had over a dozen prior arrests and reportedly violated a stay-away order when he returned to protest three weeks later.

“The government’s sentencing recommendation here is just so disproportionate to other sentences for people who have engaged in similar conduct,” said McFadden. “I don’t believe in some sort of aggregate justice.”

Unfortunately, it appears that McFadden is in the minority with this opinion as other judges who have received January 6 cases have sentenced the defendants to jail time. He has similarly sentenced another defendant to 10 days in jail for stealing some microphones that belonged to Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The story brought out the rabid side of Twitter:

Sierra Marlee
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