A Texas man who threatened US Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter after attacking the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, was sentenced to more than three years in prison on Wednesday.
Garrett Miller wore a shirt that read ‘January 6, 2021 in Washington DC’ with a picture of President Donald Trump on it. Miller has already served more than two years in prison since his arrest, and according to his attorney, F. Clinton Broden, he will serve another eight months for good behavior credit.
Miller, 36, from Richardson, was one of many mobsters who documented the day’s action in social media posts. After Miller posted a selfie of himself inside the Capitol, a friend of his wrote, “You’re in?! Nice!” According to court documents, Miller replied, “He just wanted to blame himself a little bit.”
On January 6, he helped lead the charge when mobs removed barriers and swarmed the east front of the Capitol, prosecutors said. The overwhelmed and overwhelmed police were told to leave as they struggled to fight off the mob, prosecutors said.
Miller went inside the Capitol instead of leaving. Authorities say he was aggressive with police and ignored their orders when they tried to force him out. Prosecutors said he resisted being pushed out of the rotunda, so he grabbed one officer’s baton and put his hand on another.
On the night of January 6, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted the word “impeachment,” and Miller responded to her on Twitter, “Assassinate AOC.” The next day he boasted to his friends that the mob had “frightened Congress”.
Shortly after the 2020 election, he also sent a threatening message to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s Instagram account, prosecutors said, saying, “We’re here for you.” Capitol Police referred the threat to the FBI, which was already investigating Miller’s Jan. 6 actions at that point, prosecutors say. He has not been charged with threatening Schumer.
Days after the riot, Miller shared a photo of the officer he believed shot and fatally injured Ashley Babbitt on the Capitol, prosecutors say. According to court documents, Miller said in his message on his Jan. 10 Facebook page that he and others would catch the officer and “wrap around his neck with a nice rope.”
Miller’s lawyers had asked the judge to impose a prison term, but the prosecutor had asked for four years in prison.
Miller’s attorney said in court documents that despite his client’s tweets about Ocasio-Cortez and messages about cops, “there is no indication that he actually made any effort to harm anyone.” .
“While Garrett takes full responsibility for his individual actions that day, he acknowledges that his actions, and those of many others, are the product of rhetoric from cult leaders who have not yet been brought to justice. ALWAYS REMEMBER… In Wednesday’s email, “Garrett Miller was not the name of the flag hoisted by those who invaded the Capitol on a dark day in the history of this nation.”
In a letter to the judge, Miller called his social media posts “disgusting and utter embarrassment,” saying Ocasio-Cortez, Schumer, and Miller, the officers who shot Babbitt, died on January 6. I apologized to the other police officers I interacted with that day.
“I deeply regret my failure to serve the police that day and the destruction and suffering it caused. It was unnecessary, barbaric and disrespectful. I acted. I had to humble myself,” he wrote.
Miller pleaded guilty last December to charges of interfering with law enforcement, attacking, resisting or obstructing police officers, and threatening Ocasio-Cortez during civil unrest.
Miller was indicted in Texas federal court earlier this month on one count of possessing an unregistered firearm, according to court documents. When he was arrested on his Jan. 6 charges, authorities found his AR-style rifle, configured to fire like a machine gun, in his home.
He is one of nearly 1,000 people indicted and more than 500 who have pleaded guilty to federal crimes related to the Jan. 6 riots. About 400 mobsters were convicted, more than half of whom he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Richer reported from Boston. Associated Press reporter Lindsey Whitehurst contributed from Washington.
