A Texas man who traveled to D.C. on Jan. 6 and posted threats toward Congress on the right-wing social media site Parler was sentenced Thursday to 14 months in prison – the largest sentence handed down so far in connection with the Jan. 6 incident at the U.S. Capitol.
Troy Anthony Smocks, 58, of Dallas, appeared before U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan for sentencing on one felony count of transmitting threats in interstate commerce. Smocks was arrested in January and pleaded guilty last month.
In charging documents, federal prosecutors say Smocks traveled to D.C. on January 6 and then posted repeated threats on his Parler account over the next two days, including one post in which he wrote, “Many of us will return on January 19th, 2021, carrying our weapons in support of Our nation’s resolve, to which the world will never forget. We will come in numbers that no standing army or police agency can match.”
In another post, Smocks encouraged Parler users to “get our personal affairs in order” and then prepare their weapons.
“Let’s hunt these cowards down like the Traitors that each of them are,” Smocks wrote.
Despite his presence in D.C. on January 6, Smocks’ attorney, John Machado, has claimed he did not enter the Capitol grounds, and the Department of Justice did not charge him with any offenses related to the Capitol riot.
Smocks was arrested on January 15 – the same day, the DOJ says, he booked a flight to depart the U.S. for a foreign country.
According to a sentencing memo filed by the Department of Justice, this is not Smocks’ first conviction, including 18 prior criminal convictions “spanning from the early 1980s to 2006.”
This is an excerpt from WUSA-TV.
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