Ohio man who attacked officers on January 6 will serve nearly five years in prison
An Ohio man who attacked law enforcement officers during the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and who the Justice Department said became a “one-man misinformation machine” as he spread lies online about what happened that day, was sentenced to death . Thursday to four years and ten months in prison.
The man, Kenneth Joseph Owen Thomas, 41, of East Liverpool, Ohio, had said online that his June conviction on four charges related to his attacks on officers was a “huge victory,” doubling his attacks that day, prosecutors said. in court documents.
They highlighted his apparent lack of remorse in their sentencing memo, stating that Mr Thomas had “shown no remorse for his crimes” and instead “sought fame and notoriety” after being part of the January 6 mafia.
Judge Dabney Friedrich of the U.S. District Court in Washington also ordered Mr. Thomas to pay a $20,000 fine and $2,000 restitution.
Federal prosecutors, who had asked that Mr. Thomas be sentenced to about nine years in prison, said in court filings that his significant spreading of falsehoods was difficult to overstate: He started his own Web page and brand around his self-created identity as a rioter; he produced more than 20 hours of January 6-related content each week; and he repeatedly falsely claimed that “Jan. 6 was a setup.”
“The only reliable method to protect the community from Thomas in the future is to remove him from the community for a significant period of time,” prosecutors said.
Mr. Thomas could not be reached for comment Thursday evening, and his attorney, Joseph R. Conte, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Mr. Conte said in a sentencing memo that his client, a U.S. Navy veteran, was “brutally aware of the seriousness of his conduct” and that he “continues to take full responsibility for his actions.”
More than 1,000 people from nearly all 50 states have been arrested in connection with crimes related to the Capitol riot, according to the Justice Department. Some of those people had expressed regret or shame in court for their actions on the day of the attack. Mr. Thomas, however, does not fall into that camp, prosecutors argued.
“Thomas not only sought to minimize and, in some cases, glorify his conduct on January 6,” prosecutors said, “he also denigrated the experience of those he attacked.”
In court papers, prosecutors said that Mr. Thomas told his wife and daughter to stay behind before entering the Capitol grounds, joined a violent crowd that gathered on the Upper West Terrace and encouraged the group to “hold the line” to stay’.
He harassed police, prosecutors said, shouting, “This is our house” and “Traitors, traitors, traitors.”
Around 3:30 p.m., Mr. Thomas ran up the stairs toward police officers and then “punched and/or pushed his fists directly into” an officer’s chest, according to court documents.
Moments later, Mr. Thomas stormed up the stairs again, “again punching his fists and/or violently pushing” a second officer, the court documents said.
He then repeatedly pushed into a corporal who was part of the police line, the documents say, and Mr. Thomas, standing in front of the crowd, shouted in the officers’ faces, “You’ve woken a sleeping giant!”
Law enforcement officials told prosecutors that Mr. Thomas “was one of the first to come in and start beating [and] pushing agents to the line,” the Justice Department said in a press release in June.
Mr. Thomas profited from his actions that day after appearing on podcasts and webcasts to discuss his case and charges, prosecutors said, adding that he had received more than $77,000 in donations.