At sentencing, a Capitol rioter offered up a laundry list of conspiracy theories

Tristan Chandler Stevens, of Florida, was convicted of felony assault on Capitol police officers during the January 6th riot. At his sentencing hearing, Stevens offered the judge a laundry list of conspiracies to excuse his violent behavior. The judge told him this line of argument was ridiculous. Stevens has been sentenced to five years.

WUSA9:

In a conspiracy-laden rant prior to hearing McFadden’s ruling, Stevens made baseless claims about Dr. Anthony Fauci launching a “bioweapon” against the United States and a Chinese-backed shadow government running the country. He also repeatedly described Jan. 6 as an “entrapment operation” by the federal government to, he claimed, cover up the fraudulent 2020 presidential election. Stevens did briefly address the officers he was convicted of assaulting – although he failed to pronounce Gonell’s name correctly.

“I didn’t mean to make Gornell [sic] feel frustrated and ineffective,” he said.

…

“It’s ridiculous to suggest there was some kind of entrapment that caused you to do what you did,” McFadden said. “You battled those officers. You chose to do what you did.”

Prosecutors asked for a sentence of 78 months in prison, which was more than two years higher than the 51 months recommended by probation. Ultimately, McFadden landed in the middle and ordered Stevens to serve 60 months, or five years, behind bars. Stevens will also have to serve two years of supervised release after his prison term is up.