WASHINGTON — A Donald Trump enthusiast who believed the former president's lies about the 2020 election was sentenced Wednesday to more than three years in federal prison for assaulting law enforcement officers with a hockey stick during the brutal battle at the lower west tunnel of the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack.
Michael Joseph Foy was arrested in January 2021 and was initially held in pretrial detention. He was found guilty of felony charges in June. Federal prosecutors sought more than eight years in federal prison, saying Foy assaulted officers with a hockey stick and a sharpened metal pole after he traveled to Washington with a "TRUMP 2020" flag.
But U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan — who is overseeing Trump's delayed federal trial on charges he tried to overturn his 2020 election loss by conspiring to obstruct Congress and disenfranchise American voters — said Wednesday that the Justice Department's request was "unreasonable" and that it didn't factor in Foy's military service and other factors in his life in the lead-up to Jan. 6. Chutkan ultimately landed on a sentence of 40 months, meaning Foy will end up serving an additional two years and a few months in federal prison.
Foy, according to the FBI, had shown up after the 2020 election at the TCF Center in Detroit, where Trump supporters spun up lies about the election process, harassed poll workers and banged on windows to try to stop absentee ballots from being counted. In court Wednesday, his attorney said Foy's mother and stepfather were "ardent Trump supporters" who also bought into Trump's lies about the election, which made him more susceptible to the misinformation that Trump and his allies were spreading.
Elizabeth Mullin, one of the federal public defenders representing Foy, argued that giving him a lengthy sentence wouldn't stop future potential rioters from responding to false claims and heated rhetoric from political candidates going forward. A sentence for a random Jan. 6 rioter, she argued, wouldn’t have that much of a deterrent effect when prominent figures — including Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president — continue to spread lies about the 2020 election. Chutkan avoided getting roped into a discussion of Trump’s culpability for the Capitol attack ahead of the trial she'll oversee.
“I’m not getting into that,” Chutkan said with a smile, prompting laughter in the courtroom.
“Also not getting into that,” she said when Mullin discussed members of Congress who acted upon Trump’s election lies and continue to promote them.
Chutkan did take umbrage at the suggestion that Foy had planned to use the hockey stick he brought from Michigan only as a flagpole.
"This isn't a hockey town," Chutkan said, quipping that fans of the Washington Capitals "may disagree." Foy's attorney conceded that Foy ultimately used the hockey stick as a weapon at the Capitol.
In a video played during his sentencing, Foy described himself as a “30-year-old loser” who was living at his mom's house in the lead-up to the attack, which is when he fell for what his attorney described as Trump’s “dire propaganda.” Foy thanked Chutkan for helping him get “much-needed mental health help” after he was first arrested.
"Not a day goes by where I didn't say to myself, 'I'm not going to let you down,'" Foy told Chutkan during the hearing.
Chutkan said that Foy had every right to peacefully protest and that he had the right even now to believe whatever lies about the 2020 election that he chooses. But she suggested she hoped Foy had now come to realize that he had “embraced” false beliefs “based on misinformation.” Foy wasn’t being punished for his false beliefs, she reiterated. “I’m punishing you for what you did,” she told him.
Chutkan said that what happened on Jan. 6 was "terrifying" and that she was "horrified every single time" she watched videos from that day. Deterrence "is a very important factor" to prevent future rioters from acting on any future lies from political candidates, she said.
“I’ve seen so many people before me who never lifted a hand in violence before Jan. 6," Chutkan said. “There have to be significant consequences."
