'Product of rhetoric from a cult leader': Texas man who stormed the Capitol sentenced to 38 months

22 February 2023

A man who stormed the United States Capitol on January 6th, 2021 and later threatened Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) was sentenced on Wednesday to more than three years in prison and thirty-six months of supervised release, NBC News reported.

"Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 48 months in prison for Garret Miller, an unemployed Texan who, they noted, was wearing a T-shirt bearing former President Donald Trump's picture and the words 'I was there, Washington, D.C., January 6, 2021' when he was arrested weeks after the attack," politics correspondent Dareh Gregorian wrote.

Prosecutors urged District Judge Carl Nichols of the District of Columbia to impose a longer punishment on Miller because of his interaction with Ocasio-Cortez, Gregorian noted, recalling that "the New York Democrat had tweeted the word 'impeach' after the Capitol riot, to which Miller responded, 'assassinate AOC."

Clint Broden, Miller's defense attorney, thanked Nichols for handing down a leaner sentence than what was sought by the Department of Justice and explained that his then-unemployed client had fallen prey to Trump's unending barrage of conspiracy theories.

"It should always be remembered that, although Garret is fully responsible for his individual actions that day, his actions and the actions of many others were a product of rhetoric from a cult leader that has yet to be brought to justice," Broden told the court.

Miller pleaded guilty to a total of eleven charges which included him having "openly discussed his desire to doxx the officer" who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt and "hug his neck with a nice rope," according to the filing obtained by NBC.

While Broden conceded that Miller "did make the tweet responding to Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez and engaged in the vile private messenger chat regarding the Capitol Police Officer he believed killed a protestor," he insisted that "there is no indication that he [Miller] made any effort whatsoever to actually harm anybody (in fact, every indication is to the contrary)."

NBC's full report is available at this link.

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