The first U.S. Capitol rioter to be sentenced received probation, not prison time, on Wednesday (June 23) for her role in the Jan. 6 attack. According to The Guardian, Anna Morgan-Lloyd, a 49-year-old Trump supporter, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge of “parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building” and will spend no time behind bars.
Federal Judge Royce C Lamberth sentenced Morgan-Lloyd to three years of probation after she made a plea to “the American people” and apologized for participating in “a savage display of violence.” The judge said other Capitol rioters may not receive the same sentence.
“A sizable part of our public may not think that I’m enacting an appropriate sentence in this case today, in giving you the break that I’m going to give you,” Lamberth said to Morgan-Lloyd.
“I don’t want to create the impression that probation is the automatic outcome here because it’s not going to be,” he added.
According to The Guardian, the Indiana woman was arrested and spent two days in jail after bragging about “storming the Capitol” on Facebook and said it was “the most exciting day of my life.” She also said it was the “best day ever” and claimed to be one of the first 50 people inside the Capitol building.
According to prosecutors, Morgan-Lloyd and her friend spent about 10 minutes inside a Capitol hallway and did not destroy any property or incite any violence. She, like many other rioters who were arrested but not connected to any extremist groups, only faced a misdemeanor charge.
“I was there to show support for President Trump peacefully and I’m ashamed that it became a savage display of violence that day, and I would have never been there if I had a clue it was going to turn out that way,” she said in a statement. “I never wanted to be part of anything like that and I just wanted to apologize.”
“At first it didn’t dawn on me, but later I realized that if every person like me, who wasn’t violent, was removed from that crowd, the ones who were violent may have lost the nerve to do what they did,” she added.
Morgan-Lloyd’s lawyer claimed the woman has since “learned a lot” and said storming the Capitol and being federally charged has been a “trauma for her.”
“… And she knows it was a trauma for the United States of America that people did what they did and she would never do it again,” the attorney added.
As part of her three-year probation, prosecutors have requested that Morgan-Lloyd be barred from owning firearms. She’ll also be fined $500 and have to complete 120 hours of community service.