Source: Politics<\/p>\n
A Virginia man who stormed the U.S. Capitol while wearing an antisemitic \u201cCamp Auschwitz\u201d sweatshirt over a Nazi-themed shirt was sentenced on Thursday to 75 days of imprisonment.<\/p>\n
Robert Keith Packer, 57, declined to address U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols before he sentenced him during hearing held by video conference. The judge noted the \u201cincredibly offensive\u201d message on Packer’s sweatshirt before imposing the sentence.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems to me that he wore that sweatshirt for a reason. We don’t know what the reason was because Mr. Packer hasn’t told us,\u201d Nichols said.<\/p>\n
Photographs of Packer wearing the sweatshirt went viral after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. When FBI agents asked him why he wore it, he \u201cfatuously\u201d replied, \u201cBecause I was cold,\u201d a federal prosecutor said in a court filing.<\/p>\n
Packer\u2019s sweatshirt depicted an image of a human skull above the words \u201cCamp Auschwitz.\u201d The word \u201cStaff\u201d was on the back. It also bore the phrase \u201cWork Brings Freedom,\u201d a rough translation of the German words above the entrance gate to Auschwitz, the concentration camp in occupied Poland where Nazis killed more than 1 million men, women and children.<\/p>\n
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mona Furst said she learned on Wednesday that Packer also wore an \u201cSS” T-shirt \u2014 a reference to the Nazi Party paramilitary organization founded by Adolf Hitler \u2014 under his sweatshirt on Jan. 6. Packer \u201cattacked the very government that gave him the freedom to express those beliefs, no matter how abhorrent or evil they may be” when he joined the mob supporting then-President Donald Trump, the prosecutor said<\/p>\n
Packer “wanted to support the subversion of our republic and keep a dictatorial ruler in place by force and violence,\u201d Furst told the judge.<\/p>\n
Defense attorney Stephen Brennwald acknowledged that Packer’s attire was \u201cseriously offensive\u201d but argued that it shouldn’t be a sentencing factor because he has a free speech right to wear it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s just awful that he wore that shirt that day. I just don’t think it’s appropriate to give him extra time because of that because he’s allowed to wear it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Brennwald added that Packer was offended and angry to be labeled a white supremacist \u201cbecause he doesn’t see himself that way at all.\u201d The defense lawyer said Packer wanted him to sue House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for linking him to white supremacy during a press conference several days after the riot.<\/p>\n
Packer declined to speak during Thursday’s hearing because he didn’t want his words \u201csplashed out there\u201d on social media, his lawyer told the judge.<\/p>\n
Packer, a resident of Newport News, Virginia, pleaded guilty in January to a misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, which carries a maximum sentence of six months of imprisonment.<\/p>\n
Packer told the FBI that he was about 10 to 12 feet away from a rioter, Ashli Babbitt, when a police officer fatally shot her as she tried to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door leading to the Speaker\u2019s Lobby.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told the agents he heard the shot and saw her fall back from the window she was trying to climb through,\u201d Furst wrote in a court filing.<\/p>\n
Furst said Packer didn’t express any remorse during his FBI interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was more interested in relaying how he received hate mail and how he was ‘hounded’ by the media for interviews,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Packer\u2019s younger sister, Kimberly Rice, wrote a letter asking the judge for leniency. She said her brother\u2019s sweatshirt \u201ccould be considered in poor taste\u201d but added that \u201cfreedom of expression\u201d isn\u2019t a crime.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors had recommended a sentence of 75 days of incarceration followed by 36 months of probation. Brennwald sought a probationary sentence with no jail time.<\/p>\n
FBI agents arrested Packer a week after the riot. He has remained free while awaiting sentencing.<\/p>\n
Packer is a self-employed pipe fitter. Prosecutors say he has a lengthy criminal record, with approximately 21 convictions, mostly for drunken driving and other motor vehicle violations.<\/p>\n
More than 870 people have been charged with federal crimes for their conduct on Jan. 6. Approximately 400 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanor offenses. Over 250 riot defendants have been sentenced, with roughly half getting terms of imprisonment ranging from seven days to 10 years.<\/p>\n