Self-described ‘idiot scaling the wall’ sentenced to 60 days in Jan. 6 case

WASHINGTON — A U.S. Capitol riot defendant who described himself as “one of those idiots scaling the wall” on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced to 60 days in prison and three years of probation on Thursday.

Judge Carl Nichols sentenced Clifford Meteer, a Tennessee resident who stormed the Capitol in support of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Meteer’s action were “about average” for a Jan. 6 defendant who has pleaded guilty to a parading charge but he is “relatively less remorseful” than the others who admitted to that misdemeanor offense, Nichols said.

Ahead of sentencing, federal public defender Benjamin Sharp, who represented Meteer, wrote in a court filing that his client understands he was wrong to enter the Capitol but “still holds certain beliefs about the results of the election.”

“I’ve tried” to convince him that the 2020 election was legitimate, Sharp told Nichols Thursday.

Meteer mirrored Trump’s language and gripes, downplaying the Jan. 6 attack in social media messages released by prosecutors in a sentencing memo.

“The democrat stealing the election is the cause of loyal citizens storming the Bastille,” the defendant wrote in a Facebook post a day after the attack. “That’s Our house. They don’t get to disregard our vote.”