Trump supporter sentenced to seven years in prison for assaulting several police officers in Capitol assault

A well-known supporter of former U.S. President Donald Trump has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison for assaulting several police officers during the January 6, 2021 assault, including Washington Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone.

Kyle Young, 38, already pleaded guilty last May to going to the Capitol with intentions of stopping the legal process confirming Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential win and participating in several of the assaults committed against the outnumbered Capitol Police officers there.

The sentence has been to the liking of the prosecution, which has highlighted in its closing argument how Young, accompanied by his 16-year-old son, did part of “the most barbaric violence” of that January 6, as when he handed a taser gun to another of the riot hotheads to electrocute Fanone while he grabbed him.

“By restraining Fanone he prevented him from protecting his service weapon at a time when the officer’s life was in danger” while giving another defendant, Thomas Sibick, the opportunity to take his badge and radio,” prosecutors have recounted, NBC recounts.

For its part, the defense has argued that Young was fooled by the lies of those who claimed that the November elections were fraudulent, in tune with the conspiracy theories of Trump, of whom he acknowledged himself a follower when he encouraged his close associates to attend the rally that the former president gave at the gates of the White House hours before the assault on the Capitol.

Young has apologized to Fanone during the reading of the sentence. “If I could go backwards, I would,” he said, stressing that he was not proud of it. “Any punishment I will accept. I probably deserve it,” he said.

At the moment more than 850 people have been charged for their involvement in the January 6 attack, of whom 350 have pleaded guilty. At the moment, the longest sentence is for Thomas Webster, a former New York police officer sentenced to ten years in federal prison for striking one of the Capitol officers with a flagpole while he was on the ground.