"My hands are tied. In all my years on the bench, I’ve never been in this position before, and it’s all due to the government, despite calling this the crime of the century, resolving it with a . . . petty offense."

Said Judge Beryl A. Howell, quoted in "Chief federal judge in D.C. assails ‘almost schizophrenic’ Jan. 6 prosecutions: ‘The rioters were not mere protesters’" (WaPo).

Why, she asked, when prosecutors called the riot an “attack on democracy . . . unparalleled in American history,” were [Jack Jesse] Griffith and other participants facing the same charge as nonviolent protesters who routinely disrupt congressional hearings? “It seems like a bit of a disconnect,” Howell said — “muddled” and “almost schizophrenic.”...

On Thursday, Griffith told the judge his behavior was “truly disgraceful.” “I am ashamed of the way I acted,” he said. At the time of the break-in, he said, he thought it was a “minor inconvenience” for police, but now he understand they were “crippled by fear and wildly outnumbered.”