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Judge to Capitol rioter: Insurrection is "not patriotism"

05 August 2021
 Dan Ackermann

A federal judge sentencing a Michigan man in D.C. Wednesday over his role in the U.S. Capitol riot dismissed any notion that he's a political prisoner.

Driving the news: U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said that she wasn't sentencing Karl Dresch, of Calumet, "because he is a supporter" of former President Trump, noting that "millions of people" had voted for him "and did not heed his call to descend on the nation's Capitol," per the Detroit News.

"He is not a political prisoner. ... He was an enthusiastic participant in an effort to subvert the electoral process."
Excerpt from Jackson's remarks via WUSA9
  • "You called yourself and everyone else patriots, but that's not patriotism," Judge Amy Berman Jackson said to Dresch, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of entering the Capitol, according to CNN.
  • "Patriotism is loyalty to country, loyalty to the Constitution, not loyalty to a head of state. That is the tyranny we rejected on July 4."

The big picture: The Obama-appointed Jackson is the latest federal judge to condemn claims that the riot was due to some form of patriotism — with judges appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents speaking out on the grave threat the deadly insurrection posed, the Washington Post notes.

  • The Reagan-appointed U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan, who sentenced Northern Virginia couple Joshua Bustle and Jessica Bustle to home confinement Wednesday said her "inaccurate" description of Capitol rioters as "patriots" led to him seriously consider jailing her, per WashPost.
  • "Patriots are not the ones who attack the operations of Congress," he said, noting the fatalities during the insurrection. "That is revolution, not patriotism."

Of note: Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell last Thursday questioned whether it was appropriate for prosecutors to offer defendants misdemeanor plea deals in cases that saw insurrectionists "terrorizing members of Congress," CNN notes.

For the record: Jackson sentenced Dresch to six months in prison. With time served since he was incarcerated in January while awaiting trial, he is set to be released Wednesday or Thursday, per his attorney.

  • He was fined $500 in restitution for participating in the insurrection.
  • Joshua Bustle was sentenced to 30 of conditional home confinement, and Jessica Bustle to 60 days conditional home confinement.

Editor's note: This article has been updated with comment from Hogan and Howell.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.