Images of John George Todd III inside and on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021
The federal judge in Washington, D.C., who oversaw the sentencing of violent Jan. 6 defendant and veteran U.S. Marine John George Todd III, was not impressed on Friday.
Todd, who carried a fiberglass pole with a flag attached at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, expressed no remorse for his conduct, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said, according to The Associated Press.
"This is not a patriot," the judge told the Missouri resident before sentencing him to five years. "This is not conduct becoming of a Marine."
The sentence was still far under the 12 years and seven months that federal prosecutors originally sought.
The 34-year-old man did not address the court Friday.
According to a sentencing memorandum filed by prosecutors, Todd came to the Capitol from Missouri to attend former President Donald Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally and, once with the crowd, didn't wait long before he started lashing out. Carrying a fiberglass pole with a flag attached to it, Todd eventually came upon Metropolitan Police Department Officer Noah Rathbun. Rathbun, who thought Todd was trying to strike someone else with the pole, tried to remove the makeshift weapon from Todd's hands.
A struggle ensued with both men wrestling over it until finally, the fiberglass pole splintered.
"When the pole splintered, the officer and Todd both saw the splintered fiberglass, and Todd ripped the splintered pole out of Officer Rathbun's hands. This pulling sliced the officer's hand open at the knuckle. The cut was deep and exposed a tendon in his finger, requiring medical attention and stitches," prosecutors wrote in a May 17 sentencing memorandum.
Rathbun required seven stitches. Todd, according to the AP, said Rathbun caused his own injuries.
"On Jan. 6, 2021, Todd was angry that his preferred presidential candidate would not be sworn into office. Frustrated that the former president and his supported had 'exhausted every f—— legal route,' Todd was hellbent on disrupting the certification by illegal means, including by taking part in a violent riot and assaulting police officers who were trying to protect the Capitol building and members of Congress," prosecutors wrote earlier this month.
Rathbun was also attacked by Jan. 6 defendant Thomas Webster, a former New York Police Department officer who hit Rathbun with a different flagpole and, as prosecutors said at Webster's trial, tried to gouge Rathbun's eyes out. Webster was sentenced to 10 years and last week, as Law&Crime reported, he lost his latest appeal to unwind his conviction on the basis of juror bias in Washington, D.C.
As for Todd, in addition to assault, he was also convicted of obstruction of the joint session of Congress and four other counts.
He initially only faced misdemeanor charges. According to the Washington Post, it wasn't until video of him assaulting Rathbun emerged that prosecutors sought to upgrade the charges, and they got their wish with a grand jury indictment. The Post reported that Todd was in the Marines for four years and was discharged as "other than honorable" due to an abuse of alcohol.
