Federal Prosecutors Are Branding Non-Violent Jan 6 Defendants As ‘Terrorists’ To Pursue Harsher Sentences

Federal prosecutors are attempting to pursue harsher sentences for those arrested for non-violent crimes in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol by branding them as terrorists while acknowledging their actions don’t meet the legal definition of terrorism.

Court documents first flagged by independent journalist Michael Tracey from the case of Paul Hodgkins, the first Jan. 6 rioter convicted of a felony to be sentenced, show U.S. Attorney Mona Sedky saying that “we are framing this in the context of domestic terrorism,” even though his actions do not meet any...