A Capitol rioter hawked Jan. 6 merchandise from jail. The judge who sentenced him was disturbed

WASHINGTON — From jail, Shane Jenkins helped sell T-shirts, tote bags and other merchandise promoting the notion that he and other rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol are political prisoners unjustly held in pretrial detention.

That disturbed the judge who sentenced the Texas man to seven years in prison for storming the Capitol, trying to smash a widow with a metal tomahawk and hurling makeshift weapons at police officers guarding the building on Jan. 6, 2021. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta assured Jenkins that he wasn't getting punished for his political beliefs.

“And what bothers me about this notion of being (a) political prisoner is it continues to fuel the lie that somehow an election was stolen, that somehow people who are being charged because of their actions and not their beliefs are the victims. That is false,” the judge told Jenkins.

Mehta is among several judges presiding over the nearly 1,500 riot cases in Washington who have pushed back on false narratives being spread about the Jan. 6 attack and the idea that the rioters are being treated unfairly by the criminal justice system.

“Twelve people looked at the same evidence that people who are here today just saw,” Mehta told Jenkins at his sentencing. "And it’s hard for me to believe anybody could come to any other conclusion. It’s all on video.”

A jury convicted Jenkins last year of charges including obstructing an official proceeding, the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress called to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory over Trump.

Prosecutors argued that Jenkins played a pivotal role in the attack. He struck a windowpane six times with the spike end of the tomahawk before another rioter stepped in to break the window.

“Are we going in or not?” he shouted at the crowd.

Destroying the window allowed rioters to enter a conference room, where they made improvised weapons from the broken parts of wooden furniture. Mob members used the furniture pieces to attack police officers guarding an entrance in a tunnel on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace.

Jenkins told the judge he never would have been at the Capitol if he “had any inkling things were going to go the way they did” and regrets not doing more to “de-escalate the situation.”

“Things definitely got out of hand,” Jenkins said before the judge handed down his sentence. “I did get caught up in the heat of the moment, but I never had a malicious plan or intent. There was never any premeditated anything to January 6th for me.”

A website promotes Jenkins as the founder of a group that seeks to “shed light on the January 6th defendants and the treatment they have faced from the government.” The website hawked apparel with Jan. 6-themed slogans, including “Free the J6 political prisoners” and “Want my vote? Help the J6ers.”

Defense attorney Kyle Singhal told The Associated Press that he believes that Jenkins’ views on Jan. 6 have evolved, and his client wouldn’t consider himself a political prisoner or a hostage today.