Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Weissmann said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that it was highly likely former President Donald Trump will get a “significant” jail sentence after Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years for charges including seditious conspiracy.
Anchor Nicolle Wallace said, “Twenty-two years, the longest sentence so far in the Department’s January 6 prosecutions. Your reaction?”
Weissman said, “Judge Kelly, in sentencing him, made various statements, clearly quite moved, saying that, ‘January 6, it can’t happen again,’ and repeated, ‘It can’t happen again,’ that the strongest message has to be sent in reference to Tarrio.”
He added, “This is not a good thing for Donald Trump. I have said this repeatedly. It’s obviously just a prediction, but for the judges in D.C. like Judge Chutkan, who have seen all January 6 cases, the leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers doing significant time. The idea that the general, the person who you have pointed out who is alleged to have led this and for whom they were acting, the idea that Donald Trump will not be sentenced to jail if he is convicted seems remote to me because the judges are living through this and seeing all these other defendants. And it’s an insult to the rule of law that people who are underlings would get this sentence and the leader would not.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
