By SARAH WEAVER
A 56-year-old black man was sentenced to five years and three months in prison Tuesday for his involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Mark Ponder, a resident of Washington D.C., and former constituent services coordinator for the D.C. city council, pleaded guilty in April to assaulting three police officers with poles. His sentence is tied for the longest jail sentence levied so far against those involved in the riot, which has often been dubbed as “white supremacist” by prominent Democrats and officials.
“The violent, deadly insurrection on the Capitol nine months ago, it was about white supremacy, in my opinion,” President Joe Biden said at an event in October of last year.
“These displays of white supremacy are not new,” Lecia Brooks, chief of staff for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said of the riot. “Now it’s just reached a fever pitch.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate the attack was racially motivated.
“The attackers on Jan. 6 included a number … of what we would call militia violent extremism. And we have had some already arrested who we would put in the category of racially motivated violent extremism, white, as well,” Wray said, according to the Washington Post.
Kyle Cheney on X (formerly Twitter): “JUST IN: Judge Tanya Chutkan has sentenced Jan. 6 defendant Mark PONDER to 63 months in prison for assault, one of the stiffest sentences handed down yet, and steeper than DOJ’s request for five years. / X”
JUST IN: Judge Tanya Chutkan has sentenced Jan. 6 defendant Mark PONDER to 63 months in prison for assault, one of the stiffest sentences handed down yet, and steeper than DOJ’s request for five years.
Vince Coglianese on X (formerly Twitter): “Mark K. Ponder, 56, was just sentenced to more than 5 years (63 months) in prison for striking cops on Jan 6.https://t.co/MWzr4GNoPNPonder is a former constituent services coordinator for the DC city council. pic.twitter.com/Nlgtofo21J / X”
Mark K. Ponder, 56, was just sentenced to more than 5 years (63 months) in prison for striking cops on Jan 6.https://t.co/MWzr4GNoPNPonder is a former constituent services coordinator for the DC city council. pic.twitter.com/Nlgtofo21J
Ponder struck officers with a poll, before law enforcement tackled him to the ground. A voice can be heard on video of the incident saying, “You gonna have to kill me today. You gonna have to kill me.”
