Federal judge tells Capitol riot defendant what he did was ‘not patriotism’

A federal judge in Washington, D.C. refuted the idea that a defendant was acting as a “patriot” when he stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“You called yourself and everyone else patriots, but that’s not patriotism,” Judge Amy Berman Jackson said to Karl Dresch, 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,” she continued.

Dresch was arrested in mid-January and faced several charges at the time, including disorderly conduct and obstruction of an official proceeding. The Detroit News reported that he pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol Building while the other charges were dismissed.

Though Dresch was sentenced to six months in jail, CNN reported that he would be released on Wednesday since he had already been in jail following his arrest and was credited with time he already served. 

He’s one of over 550 Capitol rioters charged in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection where supporters of former President Trump stormed the Capitol, trying to disrupt Congress from certifying President Biden’s win in the 2020 election.

Jackson has been vocally critical of Trump and his role in the Jan. 6 attack, writing in May that he “continues to propagate the lie that inspired the attack on a near daily basis,” according to CNN.

In pointing to some of Dresch’s social media posts taken around the time of Jan. 6 event that described members of Congress as “traitors” and said that the violent attack was “a total victory” showed that he was not a political prisoner but deceived by someone he trusted, CNN reported.

“The defendant did not spend six months in jail because he is a political prisoner. He was not prosecuted for his political views,” Jackson said. “The defendant came to the Capitol because he placed his trust in someone who repaid that trust by lying to him.”