A Washington, D.C. Superior Court judge dismissed charges against six rioters who were arrested for trying to disrupt President Donald Trump’s Inaugural ceremonies in January, reports say.
The six were charged with engaging in and inciting a riot, as well as destruction of property, but George W. Bush appointed Judge Lynn Leibovitz of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia dismissed the charges, insisting that the evidence didn’t show that the suspects “incited” anything.
“None of them engaged in conduct that amounted to urging other persons to destroy property,” Judge Leibovitz said, according to The Washington Post.
Leibovitz didn’t dismiss all the charges, only the serious ones that amounted to a felony. If convicted of the felony charge of inciting a riot, the suspects could have faced up to ten years in prison each and a $25,000 fine.
One of the attorneys engaged by one of the six suspects said that there is still a “long way to go” before the cases are settled and the remaining charges are dealt with.
These aren’t the only rioters that Leibovitz has let off without punishment.
During the summer the judge dismissed charges against 200 people arrested for rioting during the inaugural festivities, despite the $100,000 in damage the riots cost the city.
Not all the rioters have been let off scot free, though. In July one man was sentenced to a four-month sentence for his part in the Inauguration Day rioting.
Florida resident Dane Powell, 31, received his sentence at the hands of Judge Leibovitz on July 8.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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