A conspiracy theorist and former California police chief was sentenced to prison this Thursday for participating in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, NBC News reported.
Alan Hostetter was sentenced to 135 months in federal prison. He represented himself during his trial and was found guilty in July. Prosecutors had initially sought 12.5 years in federal prison, saying Hostetter conspired, collected weapons and traveled to D.C. with the plan of using the threat of violence to stop the peaceful transfer of power.
From NBC News:
Hostetter, like GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and many far-right members of Congress, has spread conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 attack. Ramaswamy said, without evidence, during the Republican debate on Wednesday night that Jan. 6 “now does look like it was an inside job,” while Hostetter said during his trial that he believed “that the entire thing was staged.”
Hostetter, who was found to have carried a hatchet during the attack, also founded a group called the American Phoenix Project, that protested Covid restrictions and denied the 2020 election results. He recorded a video after Donald Trump lost the election in which he said that “traitors need to be executed” and promoted Jan. 6 as the final day when patriots could make their stand.
According to NBC News reporter Ryan J. Reilly, Hostetter invoked the name of deceased Jan. 6 rioter Ashli Babbitt in court, saying that video showing her being shot and killed by a U.S. Capitol Police officer was faked — which angered Babbitt’s mother Micki Witthoeft.
“I assure you she is dead,” Witthoeft told him as he left court. “What the fuck is it your trying to say?”
“Was she cremated?” he asked.
“You need help,” she fired back before calling him an “arrogant sh**.”
