Update published on October 25, 2024: Jon Schaffer has been sentenced to three years of probation, 120 hours of community service, and will also have to pay $1,000 in restitution and a $200 financial assessment due to his participation in the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The original story is as follows.
Original story published on October 16, 2024: Iced Earth frontman and noted insurrectionist Jon Schaffer is getting off light despite his involvement with the attempted overthrow of the U.S. government on January 6, 2021.
According to a sentencing memorandum from October 14 as obtained by Blabbermouth, the U.S. government requested that Schaffer be sentenced to three years of supervised probation and will pay $2,000 in restitution on top of another $200 in "special assessment."
On the sentence, the memorandum reads: "Such a sentence would be sufficient to reflect the seriousness of this offense while also accounting for the three months defendant was detained following his arrest, the defendant's early acceptance of responsibility, and the substantial assistance he has provided to law enforcement pursuant to his cooperation plea agreement."
Schaffer entered a plea deal in April 2021, agreeing to cooperate with investigators of the January 6 insurrection and potentially testify against those involved.
Schaffer was originally charged with six crimes but ultimately pled guilty to two – obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, and trespassing on restricted grounds of the Capitol while armed with a deadly or dangerous weapon.
The October 14 memorandum describes Schaffer's involvement as such: "The defendant was one of the first six people to breach the Capitol through the doors on the northwest side of the building near the Senate Parliamentarian's office. Schaffer wore a tactical vest and a hat that read, 'Oath Keepers Lifetime Member,' and he was carrying a can of bear spray.
"The menacing conduct of Schaffer and the others at the front of the line forced officers to retreat and allowed the mob to start pouring into the Capitol through this entrance.
"The defendant’s participation in the attack on the Capitol was not random; it was the culmination of weeks, if not months of increasingly violent calls by Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, the leader of the Oath Keepers, to oppose the lawful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joseph Biden. Schaffer was privy to some of these communications, as an Oath Keepers member, and he marched with the Oath Keepers during an event in D.C. in November 2020 to oppose the results of the election.
"At the same time, Schaffer did not participate in the Oath Keepers' planning and coordination for the attack on the Capitol (he was not part of any of the group's encrypted chats for the January 6 operation),and he did not enter the Capitol with them on January 6. For this reason, Schaffer was not charged with participating in a conspiracy with other Oath Keepers.
"Furthermore, Schaffer was inside the Capitol for less than ten minutes and did not directly harm or seek to harm any officers or property during this offense. Schaffer also has been cooperative with law enforcement since he turned himself in eleven days after the attack, proffering several times with law enforcement and providing fulsome, credible, and relevant information.
"On April 16, 2021, the defendant fully accepted responsibility and pled guilty, pursuant to a cooperation plea agreement, to one count of Obstruction of an Official Proceeding, and one count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon. The defendant was the first person to plead guilty to participating in the January 6 attack, and he agreed to permit the details of his cooperation plea agreement to be made public."
