"No More Rewriting History -- Or Else!"

 

In my 37 years on the bench, I cannot recall a time when such meritless justifications of criminal activity have gone mainstream.

--Federal Judge Royce Lamberth, D.C. Circuit, 

Senior Judge Lamberth, appointed to the bench in 1987 by Ronald Reagan, has had it with Trump and his followers and the massive effort to rewrite what happened on January 6th. Had it up to here! In tacking on two more months of confinement for an NC trespasser at the Capitol because the man not only refused to take responsibility for his actions but has also been spouting the Trump lies on social media, unrepentant and defiant. Lamberth gave him another couple of months to think about it. Whether it was a wise judgment or not, it was certainly a futile one.

But the additional sentence is maybe less shocking that what Judge Lamberth wrote in his order:

“I have been dismayed to see distortions and outright falsehoods seep into the public consciousness. I have been shocked to watch some public figures try to rewrite history, claiming rioters behaved ‘in an orderly fashion’ like ordinary tourists, or martyrizing convicted January 6 defendants as ‘political prisoners’ or even, incredibly, ‘hostages.’ 

“That is all preposterous,” the judge wrote. “But the Court fears that such destructive, misguided rhetoric could presage further danger to our country.

“This was not patriotism; it was the antithesis of patriotism,” Lamberth said. “And the rioters achieved this result through force.”