Monroe County brothers sentenced for Jan. 6 assaults, days before Trump's inauguration
Two brothers from Stroudsburg were sentenced Friday for their roles in the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Andrew Valentin, 27, and Matthew Valentin, 32, were sentenced to two and a half years in prison by U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, CNN reported.
They could be among the last people to be sentenced for the riot, if Donald Trump issues pardons after being sworn in Monday for his second term as president. “This may be, depending upon what happens outside these walls, the last one of these,” U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan told another defendant on Friday, according to CNN.
More:Donald Trump's pledge of 'major pardons' for Jan. 6 defendants has allies, critics on edge
In September, Matthew Valentin pleaded guilty to two felony counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers. He faced up to eight years in prison for each count.
Andrew Valentin, now of Allentown, pleaded guilty to one felony count of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers and one felony count of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon. He faced up to 28 years, as the dangerous weapon charge carried a 20-year maximum.
Matthew Valentin (circled in yellow) and Andrew Valentin (circled in red) are shown in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, in this open-source photo used in a criminal complaint against the brothers.
“The brothers climbed a media tower and watched the chaos around them unfold before committing multiple assaults,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said in a sentencing memo that called for 57-month prison terms for the brothers.
“They helped break the police line by shoving a metal barricade into officers, and Matthew Valentin violently grabbed an officer’s neck. They followed that assault by stealing police batons and berating officers,” the government’s memo continued.
“Matthew Valentin committed two other acts of violence—spraying a chemical irritant towards officers and trying to wrestle a baton from another officer. Andrew Valentin threw a chair at officers, striking one,” the memo said.
The brothers did not have criminal histories, sentencing memos from their lawyers note.
“I am disappointed in myself when I think about how the law enforcement agents must have felt on that day and every day since,” Andrew Valentin wrote to Walton in a letter apologizing for his actions. “My intentions were never to hurt anyone and I cannot believe that I behaved in such a manner.”
Andrew Valentin did not go inside the U.S. Capitol, his attorney Thomas P. Sundmaker wrote, but did “unfortunately overreact to what he believed was excessive force directed at his brother” and “made a very rash and foolish move by throwing a plastic chair” toward police. The memo said no one was injured by the chair.
Matthew Valentin, who also did not enter the Capitol, “engaged in only a several second pushing and pulling episode” against officers with a bike rack barricade, his lawyer Joshua E. Karoly wrote. LOOKS LIKE THESE TWO FINE YOUNG MEN LUCKED OUT.
