NC man at Jan. 6 Capitol riots showed no remorse, says judge, doubling his sentence

A federal judge on Thursday doubled the sentence of a North Carolina trucker who was present during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, saying the man showed no remorse for the rioting and assaults that day.

James “Les” Little, 53, of Claremont in Catawba County, was originally sentenced in 2022 to 60 days in jail and three years of supervised release, The Charlotte Observer previously reported. He had pleaded guilty in November 2021 to a misdemeanor charge of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

In August 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals tossed out the sentence, ruling that a “petty” misdemeanor can’t include both a prison sentence and probation.

Little completed his 60-day sentence and about half his probation by the time of the ruling, The Washington Post reported. He then asked Judge Royce Lamberth to release him from the rest of his probation, which the judge declined to do Thursday, the Post first reported.

Instead, Lamberth tacked on two more months.

Little “has consistently refused to take responsibility for his actions,” Lamberth wrote in his ruling in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. He “has denied the gravity of what happened that day and the legitimacy of bringing the criminal justice system to bear on those who participated.”

‘Political prison’ claim

In making social media posts, Little “has sought to downplay the attack on the Capitol while minimizing or denying his personal responsibility,” Lamberth wrote.

“’They’re trying to take my freedom of speech and gun rights away, and for a flipping misdemeanor with no record,’” the judge quoted Little saying in his posts.

“While he has posted that he regretted ‘being a vigilante and taking matters into my own hands,’ he has also posted that his ‘MISDEMEANOR’ arrest was for ’peacefully protesting in our Capital [sic],’ “ Lamberth wrote.

And Little posted that he spent time in “political prison,” the judge said.

Lamberth said he was adding to Little’s sentence “to reflect the seriousness of the offense” and “to protect the public from further crimes of the defendant.”

What did he do?

An FBI photo included in his 2022 indictment shows Little inside the Capitol building.

While Little entered the Capitol, he wasn’t part of the violence and didn’t destroy property, his attorney, assistant federal Public Defender Peter Adolf of Charlotte, told Lamberth at the time.

Little, he said, deserved probation, which federal courts had already granted in what Adolf described as more serious Capitol cases.

Adolf said Little had now been caught in the “pushback by the public, politicians and some of the judges in this district” that sentences for Capitol defendants need “to hurt.”

He asked Lamberth to consider Little as an individual and not a member of an angry mob.

Adolf couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday night.

‘This was not patriotism,’ judge rules

In his ruling Thursday, Lamberth also took a broader swipe.

“The Court is accustomed to defendants who refuse to accept that they did anything wrong,” Lamberth wrote. “But in my thirty-seven years on the bench, I cannot recall a time when such meritless justifications of criminal activity have gone mainstream.

Former President Ronald Reagan appointed Lamberth to the bench in 1987.

“I have been dismayed to see distortions and outright falsehoods seep into the public consciousness. I have been shocked to watch some public figures try to rewrite history, claiming rioters behaved ‘in an orderly fashion’ like ordinary tourists, or martyrizing convicted January 6 defendants as ‘political prisoners’ or even, incredibly, ‘hostages.’

“That is all preposterous,” the judge wrote. “But the Court fears that such destructive, misguided rhetoric could presage further danger to our country.”

“This was not patriotism; it was the antithesis of patriotism,” Lamberth said. “And the rioters achieved this result through force.”