Judge won’t change sentence in Capitol riot case

A federal judge has refused to revoke the prison sentence of a Stockholm man who pleaded guilty in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Scott Fairlamb was the first person to plead guilty to a charge of assaulting a police officer in connection with the Capitol attack.

He was sentenced to 41 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to federal charges of obstruction of an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers in November 2021. He admitted illegally entering the Capitol armed with a police baton and shoving and punching a Metropolitan Police officer in his face shield.

In the plea agreement, he said he was satisfied with the legal services provided by his attorney.

On Feb. 1, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, D.C., rejected Fairlamb’s motion to overturn his sentence, citing the ineffective assistance of his lawyer.

“Even if Mr. Fairlamb’s claims about his plea counsel’s performance are true, and even if these missteps established deficient performance, Mr. Fairlamb cannot show that he was prejudiced in pleading guilty rather than going to trial. As the Court remarked during sentencing, the video evidence against Mr. Fairlamb, standing alone, was overwhelming,” Lamberth said in his ruling.

Fairlamb would have faced a possible sentence at least four times longer if he had gone to trial, the judge added.