Man who admitted he assaulted officers with a fire extinguisher on January 6 is sentenced to 63 months

Washington — Robert Scott Palmer, a Florida man who admitted he assaulted officers with a wooden plank and a fire extinguisher during the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, was sentenced to 63 months in prison on Friday.

This is the harshest sentence handed down in the investigation into the mob that forced Congress to temporarily halt its counting of the 2020 presidential election Electoral College votes. 

"I'm so ashamed that I was a part of it. Very, very ashamed," Palmer emotionally told Judge Tanya Chutkan, explaining that from jail, he watched a segment on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show about his conduct that made him, "horrified…absolutely devastated."

Palmer, who was arrested in March and pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting officers in October, asked Chutkan to sentence him to no more than two years in prison for his actions on January 6, a request she denied. 

"I have to make it clear that the actions you engaged in cannot happen again," the judge told Palmer, "It has to be made clear that trying to violently" overtake the government is "going to be met with absolutely certain punishment."

As part of his plea agreement, Palmer admitted to throwing, "a wooden plank at U.S. Capitol Police and Metropolitan Department officers protecting the Lower West Terrace entrance" of the Capitol during the Capitol breach. He also admitted to spraying "the contents of a fire extinguisher at the officers until it was empty" before throwing the extinguisher in their direction, as written in a Statement of Offense that he signed.  

Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Palmer to 63 months behind bars — the longest prison term formally requested so far by the government in the ongoing investigation into the January 6 riot. 

In their sentencing memorandum, government prosecutors claimed that Palmer was "on the front line of rioters confronting officers."

"Defendant's repeated violent assaults on law enforcement for the purpose of overturning a democratic election warrant a significant term of imprisonment," they wrote. 

After assailing officers with the fire extinguisher and fending off pepper spray, Palmer "threw the [wooden] pole like a spear" towards a group of law enforcement attempting to guard the Capitol's Lower West Terrace before a "non-lethal projectile" was fired at him by officers, their memo described. 

The government also said that "no specific injury" has been tied to Palmer's conduct. 

Palmer's attorney argued in court and in the sentencing memorandum that he has "struggled with depression and substance abuse" and an abusive childhood, which may have contributed to his actions that day.

Chutkan sympathized with Palmer Friday and said that those types of experiences "stay with you." 

The defendant's son, Robert Scott Palmer Jr., also addressed the court. "I do not in any way condone the actions that took place," said the son, "While it is severe and unacceptable, it is just a brief moment." 

In their pre-sentencing filings, the defense also tried to say that Palmer's actions were in part informed by the conduct displayed by former President Donald Trump leading up to the insurrection.

"Mr. Palmer went to the Capitol at the behest of the former president. Like many others who participated in the Capitol riot, Mr. Palmer blindly followed the many figures who falsely but persistently claimed that the election had been stolen from the president," his legal team wrote, "Those voices, including the voice of the then-president himself, had convinced persons such as Mr. Palmer that the election was fraudulent and that they must take action to stop the transition of the presidency."

"It is relevant to consider that the riot almost surely would not have occurred but for the financing and organization that was conducted by persons unconnected to Mr. Palmer who will likely never be held responsible for their relevant conduct," the defendant's memorandum also argued. 

Palmer himself also sent a handwritten letter to Chutkan ahead of Friday's hearing, asking for her mercy and understanding.  

"Trump supporters were lied to by those that at the time had great power meaning the sitting President," the letter read in part, "They kept spitting out the false narrative about a stolen election and how it was 'our duty' to stand up to tyranny." 

During his plea proceedings Palmer agreed to allow law enforcement to review his social media accounts and postings around January 6, but since entering that agreement, prosecutors alleged the defendant posted on an online fundraising page that indicated he no longer accepted responsibility for his actions at the Capitol. 

Judge Chutkan revealed on Friday that she agreed with this characterization: "He was still denying culpability for the defense," after pleading guilty. As a result, the judge decided he would not get as much credit for accepting responsibility for the crime when calculating the sentence. 

"None of us are the worst things we've ever done," the judge told Palmer, whose lawyer revealed his client recently received a COVID-19 vaccine. "I hope you continue to consider other sources of information as you go forward,'' Chutkan added.