Seattle man sentenced for assaulting officers during US Capitol riot
Feb 10, 2022, 1:23 PM | Updated: 1:39 pm
A view of the U.S. Capitol down East Capitol Street. (Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
A federal judge sentenced Mark Leffingwell of Seattle to six months in prison for assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson also sentenced Leffingwell to 200 hours of community service.
According to court documents, Leffingwell marched into the Capitol building, all the way to the Senate Wing entrance. Standing at the front of the crowd, he yelled at the people around him not to back down. When police officers tried to get the crowd to back up, Leffingwell hit two of them in the head.
In her explanation of her decision, Berman Jackson noted that Leffingwell had not sent messages hinting at violence before the date of the riot. She also pointed out, however, the role that Leffingwell took in egging on the crowd from the front row and encouraging people not to back up when the officers tried to push them back when he “should have known better.”
“It is not patriotism, it is not standing up for America, it is not legitimate political discourse, and it is not justified to descend on the nation’s Capitol at the direction of a disappointed candidate and disrupt the electoral process, … it is the definition of tyranny, of authoritarianism,” Berman Jackson said. “Attacking the law enforcement officers trying to preserve order in our seat of government, trying to protect the public servants in the building, isn’t patriotism either.”
Name of Seattle officers in DC during Capitol riot to remain anonymous — for now
Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said Leffingwell had plenty of opportunities to turn around and make the right decision during the Capitol riot, but he pushed forward with going into the Capitol and leading the crowd in facing off against the officers. They called his actions “domestic terrorism.”
The defense said it was election misinformation and a “sense of misguided patriotism” that led Leffingwell — a 52-year-old veteran who was injured in the line of duty — to make the decisions he made. Court documents note that Leffingwell admitted wrongdoing after the riot, saying he felt embarrassed and wanted to apologize to the officers. During the sentencing hearing, Leffingwell again said he felt “ashamed of himself” and wished he could go back in time and do things differently.
Leffingwell is one of several locals being prosecuted for the riot.
Follow Nicole Jennings on Twitter or email her here.
