January 25, 2022
Out Conservative Brandon Straka Sentenced For Role in January 6 Capitol Attack
READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Brandon Straka, the out, pro-Trump organizer and social media influencer who spoke at a Washington, DC, rally the day before the�US Capitol attack�was sentenced to three years of probation on Monday, reported CNN.
The "self-described 'former liberal' who founded the #WalkAway campaign to encourage people to leave the Democratic Party, admitted to recording himself telling the mob to 'go go go' as they reached the Capitol and telling rioters who were wrestling a shield away from a US Capitol Police officer to 'take it, take it.'"
He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct on Capitol in October and will have to pay a $5,000 fine, the maximum fine allowed. In addition, he has to pay $500 for the damage done to the Capitol building by the mob.
His sentence was delivered by a federal judge appointed by Donald Trump. In his comments, District Judge Dabney Friedrich in Washington said: "The thing that's hard to understand is that he started this movement, the Walk Away movement ... with the mission to bring together all walks of life to have civil discourse and to listen to one another and to not be violent. And his actions that day are so inconsistent with that."
Friedrich added that it was "deeply troubling" that Straka used his social media accounts to defend what happened on January 6.
"He still persists in this idea that it is okay to storm the Capitol to contest an election, and that's not what we do in this country. People who do that are not patriots," she added.
CNN reports that Straka apologized to lawmakers and the police during the hour-long hearing, saying that he was "deeply sorry and ashamed for being present at an event that sent members of Congress running in fear to evacuate a building," and that "no police officer should ever have to feel their life or safety are in jeopardy because they're working at a protest."
In late December 2020, prosecutors say that Straka had posted on social media: "We can not allow a transition to Biden under these circumstances," adding later, "make peace right now with the fact that we are in a civil war."
