A man who attacked an Associated Press photojournalist and threw a flagpole and a smoke grenade at police officers guarding the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, was sentenced Friday to five years in prison.
Rodney Milstreed, 56, of Finksburg, Maryland, “prepared for battle” on Jan. 6 by injecting himself with steroids and arming himself with a four-foot-tall wooden pole disguised as a flagpole, the indictment alleges.
A prosecutor showed U.S. District Judge James Boasberg videos of Milstreed’s attacks outside the Capitol.
In the end, Milstreed told the judge that it was painful to see his violent actions and hear his combative language that day.
“I know what I did that day was very wrong,” he admitted, only to hear the judge say he believed in his remorse, particularly for assaulting police officers and a photojournalist.
Prosecutors sought a prison sentence of six years and six months for Milstreed, a machinist who worked at oil and gas facilities.
In a letter to the judge before sentencing, Milstreed said he understands the wrongfulness of his actions on Jan. 6 and has learned from his mistakes.
Milstreed was arrested in May 2022 in Colorado, where he worked, and at that time pleaded guilty to charges of assault and possession of an unregistered firearm.
Milstreed had been angered by the result of the 2020 presidential election, which gave victory to Democrat Joe Biden over Republican Donald Trump, and used social media to make threats against the authorities.
In late December 2020, he emailed a department of the far-right group Proud Boys in Maryland to ask how he could join the movement.
On the morning of January 6, 2021, Milstreed took a train to Washington and then attended then-President Donald Trump’s rally near the White House, following the crowd heading to the Capitol to try to stop the counting of college votes and thus reversing the elections. Trump’s defeat.
Milstreed joined other protesters in attacking an Associated Press photographer, pushing and threatening him, before violently attacking him.
Other protesters were accused of attacking the same photographer, and one of them, Alan Byerly, 55, of Pennsylvania, was sentenced last October to two years and ten months in prison.
More than 1,100 people were charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol invasion, more than 650 were convicted and about two-thirds of them received prison terms ranging from three days to 22 years.
Source: TSF
