Capitol rioter in ‘Camp Auschwitz’ sweatshirt sentenced to 75 days in federal prison
Robert Packer’s sister asked the judge not to ‘judge a book by its cover’
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Robert Keith Packer, a Capitol riot defendant who wore a "Camp Auschwitz" sweater to the attack, has been sentenced to 75 days in federal prison, as well as three years probation.
US District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump nominee confirmed in 2019, sentenced Packer who was arrested a week after the riot and later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanour charge of unlawful picketing and parading.
Stephen Brennwald, Packer's defence attorney, argued that his client was like a modern day Forrest Gump, claiming that he was a "man who went through life almost as if he was outside of his body and mind, looking in."
NBC News reports that Mr Brennwald claimed his client's son stopped speaking to him and that he had been subject to "significant" harassment from the public "mostly because of the nature of the offensive shirt he was wearing."
Packer's sister, Kimberly Rice, also tried to appeal to the judge on her brother's behalf, writing a letter in which she describes him as the "best brother with a huge heart and gentle soul," and asked the judge not to "judge a book by its cover."
"Over the last year and half the media has portrayed and described a person who he is NOT and NEVER has been. His day to day living over the last year and half has been so altered and a major struggle for him, living in fear because of the news media slandering his name and making him out to be some monster that he absolutely is not, losing his long tenure job, death threats to him and and so on," she wrote.
She claimed he was being demonised "all over a sweatshirt — yes, a sweatshirt."
When asked by investigators why he wore a sweatshirt commemorating the infamous Nazi death camp, he told them he wore it because he was "cold." The sweatshirt had the word "STAFF" written along the back, and the words "Work Means Freedom" under a skull logo on the front referencing the sign at the entrance to the death camp.
During the sentencing hearing, Assistant US Attorney Mona Furst showed a photo of Packer wearing a shirt with the SS logo — referencing the Nazi's elite bodyguards and security force — under his Auschwitz sweater.
“Mr Packer showed the world who he was on Jan 6 by both his deeds and his actions,” Assistant US Attorney Mona Furst said in court on Thursday. “He posted his belief on his clothing that day.”
More than a million people – mostly Jews – were murdered in the Nazi extermination camp during the Second World War.
Packer joins the more than 350 Capitol riot defendants who have been convicted for participating in the attack. More than 850 people have been arrested, and hundreds are still awaiting trials.