An enthusiastic supporter of Donald Trump who assaulted law enforcement officers with a fire extinguisher while wearing an American flag sweatshirt emblazoned with Trump’s name should serve more than five years in federal prison, Justice Department prosecutors said Friday.
Robert Scott Palmer was arrested 12 days after he was identified in a March HuffPost story as the Capitol rioter who assaulted cops with a fire extinguisher as they tried to protect the Capitol on Jan. 6. He has been locked up since he pleaded guilty in October to assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon, inflicting bodily injury.
Judge Tanya Chutkan will sentence Palmer, who committed his assault on officers while wearing a red “Florida for Trump” hat, on Dec. 17. In a sentencing memo Friday, federal prosecutors sought 63 months behind bars.
Palmer will be the first Capitol defendant to be sentenced for a felony assault in connection with the brutal attack on law enforcement on the west side of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Video showed him spraying embattled officers with the contents of a fire extinguisher and then chucking the empty canister at the police line.