A man who assaulted police with pepper spray during the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.
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Jeffrey Scott Brown, 56, of California, received a sentence of 54 months in federal prison for felony and misdemeanour charges related to the mob attack by supporters of former president Donald Trump, the US Department of Justice said on Friday.
More than 1000 individuals have been arrested, including more than 320 people who have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, the department said.
Trump supporters that day tried to stop Congress from certifying presidential election results for Joe Biden, a Democrat, over Trump, a Republican.
Brown and two co-defendants were found guilty at trial in December.
Peter J Schwartz of Pennsylvania is scheduled to be sentenced in May. It was not clear why Markus Maly of Virginia was not sentenced on Friday as scheduled.
Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 70 months for Brown, who they say dove toward the front of a makeshift police line and used on officers a stolen can of pepper spray handed to him by Schwartz.
Brown's lawyer Samuel C Moore sought 40 months in prison, according to court documents.
Moore said that the conduct involved "less than 10 minutes of Mr Brown's life" and the pepper spray "did not make contact with any specific victim".
Still, Moore wrote, Brown admits he should never have been in the Capitol tunnel that day and that he takes responsibility for doing so.
Australian Associated Press
