Washington — The former New York City police officer convicted of assaulting law enforcement during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was sentenced to 10 years in prison, a federal judge ruled Thursday, the longest prison sentence so far imposed in the sprawling investigation.
Thomas Webster was convicted by a jury in May on multiple charges stemming from his membership in the mob, including assaulting officers and violent and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Webster, a Marine Corps veteran, was released on 24-hour home detention following the guilty verdicts, but prosecutors asked Judge Amit Mehta to impose the stiffest sentence yet — up to 210 months behind bars — in the hundreds of Jan. 6 prosecutions that have made it to sentencing.
Mehta handed down a sentence of 120 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release, in deference to Webster’s 25 years of service as a police officer and Marine and and his later signaling of remorse for his actions.
In court documents filed ahead of Thursday’s sentencing, the Justice Department had argued Webster “spearheaded” a breach against the police line on the Capitol’s west front and was responsible for “disgracing a democracy that he once fought honorably to protect and serve.”
“Notwithstanding his background and training, Webster did not try to de-escalate the situation or leave the premises,” the government wrote, “Instead, he led the charge. Webster spent eight minutes elbowing his way through the densely packed crowd so that he could position himself at the front of the mob.”
But in pre-sentencing documents of his own, Webster disavowed claims of fraud in the 2020 election and included a letter of support from a friend who blames former President Trump for “despicable lies.”
This is a developing story.
