Iced Earth guitarist and January 6 insurrectionist Jon Schaffer sentenced

Jon Schafferthe heavy metal guitarist and founding ‘life member’ of the Oath Keepers, who was one of the first to breach the Capitol January 62021, was sentenced to three years of probation and 120 hours of community service. He will also have to pay $1,000 in restitution and a $200 financial assessment.

The sentence for Schaffer, who accepted a plea deal in April 2021, is similar to what the government recommended earlier this month (the Justice Department had asked him to pay $2,000 in restitution).

In early October, federal prosecutors praised Schaffer’s “substantial” cooperation in the Jan. 6 investigation and recommended that he serve no prison time. The Republic reports that they instead asked for Schaffer to be placed on probation for three years, including six months of house arrest, along with the aforementioned restitution, fine, and community service. He provided information on other matters to the US government and testified before a grand jury. The recommendation also follows a June Supreme Court ruling that limited prosecutors’ ability to charge Jan. 6 insurrectionists with obstruction and several delays in Schaffer’s sentencing date.

In a statementSchaffer said he “deeply regrets” his actions on January 6. country and the rule of law,” he said. “When the 2020 election happened and I saw many government officials and media reporting that the election had been stolen, my concern increased. This led to my decision to go to DC and make my voice heard. I don’t excuse my impulsive behavior. I was wrong, and I take responsibility for my actions. I realize I made a big mistake, and I wish I had never gone there.”

The Ministry of Justice has not yet commented on the sentence.

The verdict was a long time coming for Schaffer, who became one of the most high-profile people to enter the Capitol because of his high profile. Over the years, Schaffer, who founded the successful metal group Frozen earthhas made statements to the press supporting conservative government leaders and offering conspiracy theories about liberals. According to court documents, Schaffer had no criminal record before Jan. 6, but before his arrest, the FBI placed him on its “Most Wanted” list in the days after the riot.

Editor’s Choices

In a statement of facts for the government, an FBI agent included photos of Schaffer and alleged that he sprayed Capitol police officers with “bear spray,” a form of pepper spray. As he entered the Capitol, he wore a baseball cap emblazoned with “Oath Keepers Lifetime Member,” associating him with the ad hoc militia group that claims to uphold the Constitution but whose founder, Stewart Rhodes was found guilty of seditious conspiracy in 2022 regarding January 6 and was sentenced to 18 years in prison in May.

On November 14, 2020, a week after President Biden won the election, Schaffer had attended the ‘Million MAGA March’ with other Oath Keepers and given an interview to a journalist that day, promising ‘a lot of bloodshed’ if the election were to take place . country would ‘absorb into some global, communist system’.

On January 16, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia filed a criminal complaint on behalf of the country containing six counts. It was alleged that Schaffer knowingly disrupted a restricted building, disrupted the orderly conduct of government affairs, knowingly engaged in physical violence in a restricted building, forcibly Entered the Capitol with “disorderly conduct,” engaged in physical violence in the Capitol, and participated in a demonstration. in the government building. The court issued an arrest warrant the same day. Schaffer, who lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana, turned himself in to authorities the next day in Noblesville, Indiana.

Related

Three months later, the Justice Department offered Schaffer a plea deal, reducing his charges to “obstruction of an official proceeding” and “entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.” The former charge carried a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. The latter charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, an additional $250,000 fine and an additional period of supervised release of up to three years. In its papers, the DOJ said it would recommend between 41 and 51 months in prison and a fine of between $15,000 and $250,000. Because of his cooperation, the government also offered to place him in witness protection. Schaffer signed the document the next day and was released on personal recognizance pending sentencing.

During a detention hearing in March 2021, said Schaffer’s attorney, Marc Victor, described Schaffer as “a man of peace” and claimed he knew “absolutely none of these people” at the Million MAGA March and that his statements about bloodshed were “anti-war.” “He’s anti-world government,” Victor said. “OK. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I know there are many reasonable people who agree with Mr. Schaffer on that point.” Victor also denied that Schaffer was an Oath Keeper, although text messages from a day after the uprising showed one member in a group conversation: “He’s one of us, right?”

Schaffer blamed his actions on former President Trump, Victor said. “He believed in a story,” the lawyer said. “What you heard from Mr. Schaffer is what Mr. Schaffer heard from the President of the United States: that the election was stolen, that it was rigged, that there was fraud. He believed the President of the United States, and maybe that’s his fault here. Don’t know.”

Growing up, Schaffer’s father instilled in him political beliefs. “My father was a John Birch guy,” Schaffer told radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in 2011, referring to the ultraconservative, anti-communist John Birch Society. “When I was a young kid, I remember things he and his friends would do. talking about the UN and stuff.”

He formed Iced Earth around 1989 and was the only musician to remain in the band’s lineup since its inception. (The group has released more than a dozen albums.) Nearly all of the members of Iced Earth have declined to speak to Rolling stone about Schaffer, but those who did described him as driven, possibly even to the point of alienating his employees.

Schaffer began addressing his political beliefs after 9/11, both in songs (the band’s 2004 album, The glorious burdenwas inspired by the Civil War) and in interviews. “I don’t want a Big Brother dictating my life,” he says said in 2004 When asked if a “left-wing government” could be positive for the US, “I don’t feel like I should be taxed to death to pay for all these government programs that the leftists want. I am an independent person; the smaller the government, the better. The government should not rule people’s lives. It’s nonsense and we’re not talking about that.” In the same issue he asked, “Where did the Democrats get the blacks?” and described CNN as “the Communist News Network.”

Towards the end of the decade, Schaffer’s public interest in politics increased as he launched a new side project, Sons of Liberty. Songs on the band’s 2010 album, Brushfire of the mindinclude “Our Dying Republic,” “We the People (We Surround Them),” and “Jekyll Island.” The last song refers to conspiracy theorist G. Edward Griffin’s 1994 book, The Creature of Jekyll Islandwhich claims that the Federal Reserve bank is “becoming an accomplice in supporting totalitarian regimes around the world.” Schaffer stated Jekyll Island first up his list of favorite books on his band’s profile page. (His “favorite quote,” according to that profile, is “Stand for something… or die for nothing.”)

Around this time, Schaffer began to talk more about his politics in interviews. “I have voted Republican and independent in the past because I have always been constitutionally conservative,” he said Sleaze Roxx in 2010. “However, I no longer trust the rhetoric of any politician. I’m watching these people like a hawk, and that’s what we all have to do.” He also appeared on conspiracy theorist judge Andrew Napolitano’s Fox Business show that year and said he was a fan of Napolitano’s writings. (Napolitano later claimed that the British conducted surveillance on Donald Trump at Obama’s request in 2016.)

He too defended Alex Jones in 2013, when the host of Infowars suggested that the Boston Marathon bombings were orchestrated by the US government. “People can call him (Alex Jones), me or anyone who knows the history and has studied the facts a conspiracy theorist all they want, I don’t care,” Schaffer said. “We’re not talking about conspiracy theories; we are talking about conspiracy facts.”

A few years later, he spread even more conspiracy theories claiming that Hillary Clinton did not win the popular vote in the 2016 election. “At least five states have been stolen,” he told TV War (via Blabbermond). “They had three million illegal immigrants voting. So the popular vote, I don’t believe Hillary won it, even though they say she did. I think there are so many lies and deceptions coming from the mainstream media and the government itself that I don’t trust any of it.”

Within a few years he was using conservative rhetoric, to claim“We have turned into a society of snowflakes,” and called himself an anarchist. ‘I’m not a fan of the government’ he said in 2019. “I’m not a fan of the left – they’re just as ridiculous as the far right. You follow the circle and eventually you come together. Both ends of the spectrum will end up at the same point at some point, if you go extreme either way.”

In November 2020, while marching in the Million MAGA March to protest the alleged voter fraud that allowed Joe Biden to win the presidency over Donald Trump, Schaffer spoke to the German news channel Welt.

Popular

“My name is Jon Schaffer; I’m from Indiana,” he said video of the interview which later appeared online. “A group of thugs and criminals hijacked this country a long time ago. Now they’re making their big move, and that’s not going to happen. And that’s it. These are globalists. This is the scum of the earth. People need to wake up and escape the matrix, because they are going under. They have taken the step; They’re messing with the wrong people here, believe me.”

Fifty-two days later, Schaffer was among the first insurrectionists to breach the Capitol.