Florida Man Sentenced to Over 5 Years for Assault During US Capitol Breach

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A Florida man has been sentenced to over five years in prison for assaulting law enforcement officers during the January 6 events at the US Capitol, the Justice Department said.

Robert Palmer’s 63-month sentence is the longest for a defendant on charges related to the Capitol breach. He is also the first defendant to be sentenced on the charge of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers using a dangerous or deadly weapon, the release said.

“Robert Scott Palmer, of Largo, Florida, was sentenced today to 63 months in prison for assaulting law enforcement with dangerous weapons during the breach of the US Capitol on Jan. 6, which disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress that was in the process of ascertaining and counting the electoral votes related to the presidential election,” the Justice Department said in a press release on Friday.

Palmer threw a wooden plank at US Capitol Police and Washington Metropolitan Police and then sprayed them with a fire extinguisher that he later also threw at them during the events at the Capitol on January 6, the release added.

More than 700 individuals have been arrested for crimes related to the January 6 US Capitol Breach, including over 220 facing charges of impeding law enforcement, according to the Justice Department.