Capitol rioter gets jail time after judge says 'a slap on the wrist' won't do

Jan. 6 Capitol insurrectionists
(Image credit: Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)

Matthew Mazzocco, a Texas man convicted of illegally demonstrating at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, is the first rioter to receive a jail term when prosecutors did not ask for one, The Washington Post reports.

U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan on Monday said the "country is watching to see what the consequences are for something that has not ever happened in this country before, for actions and crimes that undermine the rule of law and our democracy," and if Mazzocco walked away with "probation and a slap on the wrist, that's not going to deter anyone from trying what he did again." Chutkan sentenced Mazzocco to 45 days in jail and 60 hours of community service and ordered him to pay $500 in restitution for damage done to the Capitol building during the riot.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.