A Texas man who never breached the Capitol has been handed the longest sentence of anyone involved in the Capitol incursion after the Obama-appointed judge sentencing him praised those marching in George Floyd-inspired protests.
Troy Anthony Smocks, 58, of Dallas, was sentenced to 14 months in prison by District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan. Smocks had earlier pleaded guilty to one count of transmitting threats in interstate commerce, a felony, according to WUSA-TV.
Smocks was in Washington during the Jan. 6 Capitol incursion, but did not take part.
However, he did post a social media message on Jan. 7 that led to his arrest.
“Lets hunt these cowards down like the Traitors that each of them are. This includes RINOS,1 Dems, and Tech Execs. We now have the green light. [All] who resist US are enemies of Our Constitution, and must be treated as such. Today, the cowards ran as We took the Capital. They have it back now, only because We left. It wasn’t the building that We wanted. . . it was them!” he posted, according to CNN.
“Many of us will return on January 19th, 2021, carrying our weapons in support of Our nation’s resolve, to which the world will never forget. We will come in numbers that no standing army or police agency can match,” he also posted.
Smocks said his sentence smacked of racial discrimination.
“Your honor, this is racism. This is why there are far more black and brown men in jail than whites for the same crime,” Smocks said. “I’m no Dr. King, not by a long shot, but we do share the same skin color and the same idea of justice.”
The argument appeared to inflame Chulkan, who also is black.
“Mr. Smocks now seeks to somehow compare himself and drape himself in the mantle of civil rights. I, for one, find that offensive,” Chutkan said.
“I have not seen a scintilla of evidence that prosecutors’ decisions have been racially motivated,” Chutkan told Smocks.
“People protesting largely peacefully for the civil rights of a murdered unarmed man is not the same as an attempt to violently disrupt the operations of Congress. Those two are not the same, and that’s a false equivalency,” Chutkan said, according to The Washington Post.
“People died fighting for civil rights,” she said. “People were beaten, they were tortured mentally and physically. For you to hold yourself up as somehow a soldier in that fight is audacious.”
NEW: A federal judge sentenced Troy SMOCKS to 14 months for threatening lawmakers on social media on Jan. 6-7.
Smocks, who is Black, claimed he was facing harsher treatment than white Jan. 6 defendants.
Judge Chutkan called his remarks “offensive.”https://t.co/Bdd8TGrQgb
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) October 21, 2021
She also touched on Smocks’ 17 convictions, beginning when he was 18, and what she said was his lack of remorse.
“I listened to every word Mr. Smocks said, and nowhere did I hear a single word of remorse,” Chutkan said. “Not a single word of acknowledgment of the enormity and seriousness of what he did.”
Smocks, who has served nine months in jail waiting for this trial, will be credited with time served. He will have three years of supervision when his prison term ends.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
