The Justice Department is bragging that it obtained one of the lengthiest sentences yet against a January 6 protester. 34-year-old Mitchell Todd Gardner III, a Florida resident, was just sentenced to 4.5 years in prison. He was convicted of pepper spraying cops in the face on January 6, and breaking open a window in the US Capitol with that same pepper spray canister.
But here’s where the story gets weird, and it’s something the Justice Department is not bragging about. Mitchell Gardner is a lifelong Democrat, and his behavior that day indicates that he might even be a member of Antifa.
The Justice Department left some key details out when describing Gardner’s actions. Why do you suppose they’d do that?
Gardner is seen in photographs and cell phone videos on January 6. He somehow got his hands on a canister of Oleoresin Capsicum from a Metropolitan Police Department officer. Oleoresin Capsicum is basically bear spray, otherwise known as pepper spray. He then sprayed at least one cop in the face shield, and the spray hit two additional officers, burning their eyes and causing them all to start coughing.
Gardner then begins yelling at protesters nearby, urging them to drag the officers out one by one (a known Antifa riot tactic). When that didn’t work, Gardner urged other protesters with a ladder to break out a window in the Capitol. No one complied, because everyone was thinking he was an obviously fed agitator by this point.
Gardner then climbed up a ledge and smashed open the window himself, using the Oleoresin Capsicum canister. (That was supposed to be the FBI’s job!) He was then shown on video waving other people into the building, and handing a table leg to another individual dressed in the Antifa black bloc uniform. Because there are just table legs lying around in the Capitol for people to use against the cops.
Last year, Gardner pleaded guilty to charges of civil disorder, briefly interrupting a meeting of the US Senate, and assaulting cops with a dangerous weapon. He was sentenced last week to 4.5 years in prison (55 months), followed by three years of supervised release on probation, and a $3,500 restitution fee for the window he broke with an MPD pepper spray canister.
Prosecutors failed to mention that Gardner appears to be a lifelong Democrat. He voted for Barack Hussein Obama twice. He voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. But then he suddenly travels to Washington, DC from Florida to protest the 2020 election on behalf of President Trump? Sounds fishy, doesn’t it?
The DOJ is also not boasting about something that was revealed in the video and photographic evidence of the case against Gardner, as reported by the Gateway Pundit and Revolver News. Mitchell Gardner was wearing a black leather jacket the whole time that he was in the crowd outside the Capitol.
After Gardner got inside and started waving others into the building, he took off the jacket. He was wearing a red “Reagan-Bush” sweatshirt and suddenly put on a red “Trump 45” hat. He was just a regular old nobody wearing Antifa gear when he was outside the Capitol but put on a MAGA costume once he was inside the building.
This raises a whole bunch of questions that the DOJ is not answering.
Why did a lifelong Democrat show up in DC that day, acting far more violent than the mostly peaceful crowd? Where did he get a Metro Police Department pepper spray canister to use against the Capitol Police? Why did he suddenly don a MAGA costume once he was inside?
Don’t hold your breath on getting any answers to those questions from the DOJ, though.
