Ex-NYPD officer gets 10 years for Jan. 6 attack

A retired New York Police Department officer was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison for attacking the U.S. Capitol and using a metal flagpole to assault one of the police officers trying to hold off a mob of Donald Trump supporters.

Thomas Webster's prison sentence is the longest so far among roughly 250 people who have been punished for their conduct during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021. The previous longest was shared by two other rioters, who were sentenced separately to seven years and three months in prison.

Webster, a 20-year NYPD veteran, was the first Capitol riot defendant to be tried on an assault charge and the first to present a self-defense argument. A jury rejected Webster's claim that he was defending himself when he tackled Metropolitan Police Department officer Noah Rathbun and grabbed his gas mask outside the Capitol on Jan. 6.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Webster, 56, to 10 years in prison plus three years of supervised release, noting that along with Rathbun, "the other victim was democracy." He allowed Webster to report to prison at a date to be determined instead of immediately ordering him into custody.

Federal prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of 17 years and six months. The court's probation department had recommended a 10-year prison sentence. Mehta wasn't bound by the recommendations.

In a court filing, prosecutors accused Webster of "disgracing a democracy that he once fought honorably to protect and serve." Webster led the charge against police barricades at the Capitol's Lower West Plaza, prosecutors said. They compared the attack to a medieval battle, with rioters pelting officers with makeshift projectiles and engaging in hand-to-hand combat.

Defense attorney James Monroe said Webster was "swept up in the fervor of the large crowd" but didn't join many other rioters in entering the Capitol. Monroe said the mob was "guided by unscrupulous politicians" and others promoting the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from the Republican incumbent.

"Today Mr. Webster was held accountable for his actions at the Capitol on January 6," Monroe told reporters outside the courthouse.

"I hope after today as Americans we can come together and start talking about things like forgiveness, and kindness and peace," Monroe added.

Webster drove alone to Washington, D.C., from his home near Goshen, New York, on the eve of the Jan. 6 "Stop the Steal" rally, where Trump addressed thousands of supporters. Webster was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a Marine Corps flag on a metal pole when he joined the mob that stormed the Capitol.

Webster said he went to the Capitol to "petition" lawmakers to "relook" at the results of the 2020 presidential election. But he testified that he didn't intend to interfere with Congress' joint session to certify President Joe Biden 's victory.

Webster retired from the NYPD in 2011 after 20 years of service, which included a stint on then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg's private security detail. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1985 to 1989 before joining the NYPD in 1991.