A Trump-appointed federal judge has rejected a request from two Capitol insurrectionists to be sentenced via video, as Reuters reporter Jan Wolfe notes that the two had claimed traveling to Washington, D.C. would represent a “financial burden.”
“Defendants found the means to travel to Washington, D.C. to commit the crime to which they have pled guilty,” U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden wrote in his order Thursday. “Defendants can therefore find the means to return to Washington, D.C. to be held accountable for this crime.”
McFadden was nominated by former Donald Trump to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2017.
Politico reporter Kyle Cheney observed that McFadden “has been comparatively less hostile toward 1/6 defendants than other federal judges in DC,” adding that Thursday’s order was a “notable rejoinder.”
The two Capitol rioters who asked to be sentenced via video are Rachel Lynn Pert and Dana Joe Winn, a couple from Middleburg, Florida, who pleaded guilty earlier this month to one misdemeanor count each of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds.
The couple reportedly live-streamed their previous trip to D.C. prior to the insurrection.
“We’re on our way to DC because us as American patriots, we’re tired of this sh*t,” Winn said in the live-stream, according to court records. “It’s time to make a stand. I never really knew how deep and corrupt all this crap was and how far back it’s gone. But American needs to wake up. We’re on the verge of f*cking losing it.”
The couple were arrested after Pert’s co-worker at a Circle K convenience store tipped off the FBI, identifying the couple in photos from Jan. 6.
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