When a January 6, 2021 defendant, who was also a UCLA student, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison last week, Ashli Babbit’s mother wasn’t surprised.
“They're throwing the book at everybody,” said Micki Witthoeft. “They are giving sentences that are unreasonable across the board.”
At 24 years old, Christian Alexander Secor may have gotten probation under normal circumstances but instead, he's been handed an obstruction felony charge for entering the Senate chamber, the Senate floor, approaching the Senate dais, and finally sitting in the seat that former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence had fled just 30 minutes prior.
Secor, a Costa Mesa resident, was arrested on Feb. 16, 2021. Following his prison term, he will be placed on three years of probation. In addition to the prison term, he also must pay $2,000 in restitution unless the case is reversed on appeal.
“The whole city is named as a defendant, so we don't really know how anybody's expected to get a fair trial,” Witthoeft told the Southern California Record.
More than 880 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states in connection to the Jan. 6 rally, according to a Department of Justice press release.
Witthoeft’s daughter, Ashli Babbit, was shot and killed by Lt. Michael Leroy Byrd, a 28-year-veteran of the Capitol Police, on the capitol grounds after she tried to climb through the shattered window of a door leading into the House of Representatives on that fateful day.
However, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice will not pursue criminal charges against Byrd.
“We're up against a mountain,” said Witthoeft who is a San Diego resident temporarily living in D.C. “In the federal court in Washington, D.C. where everybody's being tried, they all sink like a rock because the judges are predisposed.”
Witthoeft has been maintaining a nightly vigil at the Central Detention Facility in Washington, D.C. since August to memorialize Babbit’s death and to support the Jan. 6 defendants who are incarcerated there.
“What is going on right now is the Oathkeepers trial,” she said. “They’re pushing for seditious conspiracy and even though these men and one woman have requested independent trials, the judge denied the motion so they're all being tried together. The courtroom looks like a circus.”
In addition to attending General Michael Flynn’s ReAwaken America Tour in Manheim, Penn. last weekend, Witthoeft has also received condolences from former President Donald Trump.
“Trump called into our vigil and one of the things we talked about was singing the National Anthem every night at 9 pm for the J-sixers,” she added. “Last Saturday, he got 20,000 people at the rally to sing the National Anthem at 9 pm.”