Washington Post: “Two men accused of plotting deadly violence at a Virginia gun rights rally last year to incite a racial ‘civil war’ were sentenced to nine years each in federal prison Thursday after apologizing in court, with one speaking ruefully of his ‘false ideology’ and the other lamenting that he ‘got involved with the wrong people.’
“Patrik J. Mathews, 29, and Brian M. Lemley Jr., 35, who belonged to a white-supremacist group, each pleaded guilty in June to firearms- and immigration-related charges. Citing federal sentencing guidelines, defense attorneys sought prison terms in the range of three years for each man, arguing that their clients were merely fantasizing aloud when they talked about sowing mayhem.
“But U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang, in Greenbelt, Md., departed from the guidelines and imposed 108-month sentences, saying a ‘terrorism enhancement,’ allowed by federal law, was warranted in the cases. The nine-year sentences fell far short of the 25-year terms that a prosecutor asked for. The two men belonged to an extremist group called the Base, whose members espouse racial hatred, antisemitism and violent ethno-nationalism.”