Jan. 6 rioter who wore 'Camp Auschwitz' sweatshirt to be sentenced
A Jan. 6 rioter who wore a "Camp Auschwitz" sweatshirt inside the U.S. Capitol is set to be sentenced Thursday.
WASHINGTON — A Jan. 6 rioter who wore a "Camp Auschwitz" sweatshirt inside the U.S. Capitol is set to be sentenced Thursday, and his sister is urging the court not to "judge a book by [its] cover."
Robert Keith Packer was arrested the week after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and pleaded guilty a year later, in January, to a misdemeanor charge of unlawful picketing and parading. The government wants him to serve 75 days of incarceration as well as three years of probation.
Packer admitted that he traveled from Newport News, Virginia, to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 "to attend the rally" held by former President Donald Trump and that he then "entered the building despite seeing broken windows and tear gas deployed by police." He admitted he was "in a crowd of people in the hallway when rioters took down and broke apart" a sign bearing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's name that was located outside her office.
Robert Packer.U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaU.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols, a Trump nominee confirmed in 2019, will sentence Packer during a virtual court hearing at 12:30 p.m. ET.
Packer's defense attorney, Stephen Brennwald, compared Packer to Forrest Gump, writing that Packer's "demeanor and presence... appeared to be similar to the character played by Tom Hanks in the movie Forrest Gump — a man who went through life almost as if he was outside of his body and mind, looking in." Brennwald wrote that Packer had received "quite significant" harassment from the public, "mostly because of the nature of the offensive shirt he was wearing." Brennwald also said that Packer's own son won't speak to him because of his views, and asked the court to impose a probationary sentence.
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