U.S. Capitol rioter Paul Hodgkins, who carried a Trump flag into the Senate floor, has asked a judge for leniency citing his “courage” to be the “first person to step forward” during the Jan 6 attack and because President Abraham Lincoln showed mercy to the south after the civil war.
Hodgkins, who took a selfie in the Senate Chamber during the Jan. 6 insurrection, pleaded guilty last month to one count of obstructing an official proceeding, and his attorneys filed a sentencing memo invoking the Civil War and so-called “cancel culture.”
“It takes courage and strength of character to be the first person to step forward,” the filing read, MSNBC’s Scott MacFarlane reports.
The 38-year-old Tampa man was actually the second rioter to plead guilty in the election-related assault, and his attorneys said the court should extend the same “grace” toward violent Donald Trump supporters as Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses Grant showed to Confederate traitors.
“This Court stands in the shadows of Lincoln and Grant,” the filing read. “The rebellion of the south did not deserve the ‘grace’ that Lincoln and Grant would provide. But the malice and humiliation that many might have sought would not heal the nation as both Lincoln and Grant fully understood.”
The attorneys asked the judge not to enact “vengeance and the malice” that “many on one side of the spectrum seek,” and instead grant leniency to their client.
“Paul Hodgkins should not be cancelled,” the filing reads.
Jan 6 defendant Paul Hodgkins asks for leniency in new sentencing memo, saying "It takes courage & strength of character to be the 1st person to step forward"
Then invokes Civil War reference & asks to not be "cancelled"
Feds: Hodgkins carried Trump flag into well of Senate pic.twitter.com/qIe8Fb4brd
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) July 9, 2021
