Ex-MMA Fighter Gets Over 3 Years in Stiffest Capitol Riot Sentence Yet

(Bloomberg) -- A former mixed martial arts fighter who admitted assaulting a police officer during the Capitol siege was sentenced to nearly three and a half years in prison, the most severe punishment handed down yet over the Jan. 6 riot.

New Jersey resident Scott Fairlamb on Wednesday was given a 41-month prison term by a federal judge in Washington, slightly less than the 44 months prosecutors had requested. The longest sentence imposed previously was eight months, with some rioters receiving only probation. But prosecutors are now turning to rioters accused of more serious crimes.

Fairlamb was the first rioter to plead guilty to attacking a police officer at the Capitol. According to prosecutors, he shoved the officer and then punched his face shield.

A lawyer for Fairlamb, Harley Breite, argued that he should receive a sentence of 11 months, ten of which he had already served after his arrest. “Mr. Fairlamb has most definitely learned the error of his ways,” Breite wrote in a sentencing memo. “He is sincerely remorseful and will never repeat the crimes to which he pled guilty.”

QAnon Shaman

On Tuesday, U.S. prosecutors recommended a sentence of 51 months for Jacob Chansley, widely known as the QAnon Shaman, who was photographed in the Senate chamber wearing a horned head-dress. Chansley is scheduled to be sentenced in Washington next week. 

“What should have been a day in which Congress fulfilled its solemn, constitutional duty in certifying the vote count of the Electoral College, ensuring the peaceful transition of power in our nation, was disrupted by a mob of thousands,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing recommendation for Chansley. “This defendant was, quite literally, their flagbearer.”

Chansley’s lawyer, Albert Watkins, has asked for a sentence of time served. 

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