WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge who sentenced a Jan. 6 rioter to probation on Friday, instead of a harsher punishment requested by prosecutors, suggested the U.S. Justice Department was being too hard on the Jan. 6 defendants and not hard enough on those accused in police brutality protests from last summer.
U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden questioned why federal prosecutors had not brought more cases against those accused in protests last summer.
“I think the U.S. attorney would have more credibility if it was even-handed in its concern about riots and mobs in this city,” McFadden said during Danielle Doyle’s sentencing, according to the Associated Press.
The statements by McFadden were a major departure from the other federal judges who have sentenced rioters so far in the insurrection, including other Trump appointees.
According to the AP, McFadden is an appointee of former President Donald Trump.
While sentencing Doyle, McFadden said he thought she was “acting like all those looters and rioters last year. That’s because looters and rioters decided the law did not apply to them,” the AP reported.
He added that her behavior was inexcusable, calling it a “national embarrassment,” even likening it it to the police brutality protests following the death of George Floyd.