With more than 800 January 6th insurrectionists already sentenced–and more to come, including the headliners–the editorial team at National Zero opted long ago to not cover every trial and sentencing unless it dealt with something unique. Today, we had unique: during the sentencing of Taylor James Johnatakis, a judge appointed by Ronald Reagan noted that the convict’s diminishing of the Republican-led attack on Congress and his subsequent posturing as a victim in a “gulag” demonstrated his lack of remorse, CNN reports.
Judge Royce Lamberth chided Johnatakis for claiming, “everything about January 6 is just overblown.” “This cannot become normal… We cannot condone the normalization of the January 6 US Capitol riot,” Lamberth responded, noting that denials of responsibility like Johnatakis’s will lead to a “vicious cycle … that could imperil our institutions” as losers of elections resort to their followers undertaking “vigilantism, lawlessness and anarchy” instead of accepting loss.
Lambeth went on to make a not-so-veiled swipe at Trump, saying the attack was a “selfish, not patriotic” act. “There can be no room in our country for this sort of political violence,” Lambeth said before sentencing Johnatakis to more than seven years.
