Judge questions if Capitol rioters are being treated fairly

A Washington, D.C. federal judge during a hearing on Friday questioned whether alleged Capitol rioters are being treated fairly.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, who was appointed by former President Trump, suggested that the rioters were being treated harsher than rioters in D.C. last year following the murder of George Floyd, CNN reported.

“The US Attorney’s Office would have more credibility if it was even-handed in its concern about riots and mobs in the city,” McFadden said, according to the news outlet.

McFadden reportedly made the comments during a sentencing hearing for accused Capitol rioter Danielle Doyle.

Doyle, who worked ticket sales for the Oklahoma City Thunder from 2010 to 2020, pleaded guilty in July to illegally demonstrating inside the Capitol. She was identified after her coworkers saw her in a video from the riot and reported her to the FBI. 

Doyle was sentenced to two months’ probation, according to a database from the Department of Justice. She will also pay a $3,000 fine and $500 in restitution. 

During the sentencing, McFadden said that Doyle was “acting like all those looters and rioters last year,”  The Associated Press reported.

“That’s because looters and rioters decided the law did not apply to them,” he continued.

Still, he said that Doyle’s behavior was a “national embarrassment,” and said that it “made us all feel less safe” like last year’s demonstrations, AP noted. 

The comments are a departure from what other D.C. federal judges working cases related to the Capitol riot have said about the defendants. More than 600 people have been charged in connection with the riots, which saw supporters of Trump overwhelm the Capitol to delay the certification of the 2020 election. 

Last week, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton told defendant Anthony Mariotto that he’s “disgraced this country” after Mariotto pleaded guilty to parading in the Capitol.  

“To see someone destroy, or try to destroy, the Capitol is very troubling to me,” Walton said.