A judge sentenced a Maryland man to seven years in federal prison for his role in the Capitol riot, which included charging at a police officer while armed with a wooden pallet and a concealed firearm, according to NBC News.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper sentenced Christopher Alberts Wednesday to seven years in federal prison. Prosecutors asked the court to “send an unambiguous message” with Alberts case and had originally requested he face 10 years for his “assault” on the Capitol.
Alberts, a former National Guardsman, was found guilty on nine charges in April, and police arrested him at the Capitol on the night of Jan. 6, 2021.
“There’s very little evidence of people being arrested for being armed that day,” says Vivek Ramaswamy.https://t.co/EOulAtGxGT
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) August 22, 2023
The day of the riot, Alberts reportedly led protesters up the steps of the Capitol and was “the first rioter to ascend and reach a staircase landing and the first one to place his hands on a U.S. Capitol Police (“USCP”) officer on those stairs,” according to court documents.
Armed with a wooden pallet and a concealed, fully-loaded firearm — while also wearing a gas mask and metal-plated body armor – he “charged up the stairs, using the pallet as a battering ram against the officers guarding the stairwell,” prosecutors wrote. Officers discovered his firearm that night when they took him into custody, NBC News reported.
“For hours, and often just steps from the Capitol Building, Alberts screamed at police officers that they were ‘domestic terrorists’ and were ‘treasonous, communist motherfuckers,’ who were improperly stopping the rioters ‘from doing what’s right.’ He exclaimed that he and the other rioters were there ‘to do what we are constitutionally allowed to do’ — that is, they had ‘a right’ and ‘a duty’ to overthrow the government of the United States and install a new government,” prosecutors wrote. (RELATED: ‘At Least 40’ Undercover Informants Were Doing Surveillance On Jan. 6, Defense Lawyer Says)
Alberts, who prosecutors said believes his actions made him a “hero and protector,” told jurors he was at the Capitol to protest the 2020 presidential election results because he “felt like it was a fraudulent election,” NBC reported.