Howard Richardson pleaded guilty earlier this year to assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 attack. He entered restricted areas of the Capitol grounds and beat an officer with a Trump flag. On Friday, he was sentenced to 46 months in prison, a $2,000 fine, and three years of supervised release. Howard C. Richardson, a 72-year-old from Pennsylvania, was sentenced Friday to nearly four years in prison for beating a police officer with a Trump flag during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Richardson, who pleaded guilty in April to a charge of assaulting a law enforcement officer, made his way to restricted areas of the Capitol grounds during the riot that interrupted Congress as members were counting electoral votes related to the 2021 presidential election, according to a statement released by the Department of Justice. The Pennsylvania native told the FBI he was at the Capitol because he was “pissed off” about the 2020 presidential election and angry about alleged voter fraud, NBC reported. He marched through the crowd carrying a Trump flag as he passed officers trying to keep the surge at bay. “At about 1:38 p.m., Richardson was standing several feet away from the police line at the West Terrace with the flagpole,” the DOJ statement read. “He raised it and forcefully swung it downward to strike an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department who was standing behind a metal barricade. Richardson then struck the officer two more times, using enough force to break the flagpole. Then, moments later, he joined other rioters in pushing a large metal sign into a line of law enforcement officers.”
via yahoo news: A 72-year-old Capitol rioter who beat a police officer with a Trump flag has received a nearly 4-year prison sentence