Judge berates Capitol rioter: ‘Your vote doesn’t count any more than anyone else’s’

The rioter took a plea deal but did not escape a lashing from the judge

A federal judge dressed down a Capitol rioter awaiting judgement in her courtroom.

Karl Dresch, a Michigan man who pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a misdemeanour count of wilfully and knowingly parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building after agreeing to a plea deal, took a lashing from a district court judge.

The Detroit News reported that DC District Judge Amy Berman Jackson took the rioter to task for his involvement with the attack.

"We're not here today because he is a supporter the former president," the judge said. "Millions of people voted for him and did not heed his call to descend on the nation's Capitol. He was arrested because he was an enthusiastic participant in an effort to subvert and undo the electoral process."

Dresch was given six months in prison, with credit given to the time he has already spent incarcerated while awaiting trial. He was also fined $500 in restitution for participating in the insurrection.

The man was inside the Capitol for about 25 minutes and shared photos of himself there on Facebook. He called former Vice President Mike Pence a traitor and compared the attack to the American Revolution.

Thanks to his plea deal, four other charges he was facing were dropped.

Ms Berman Jackson chastised him for trying to assert the value of his vote over those of other Americans.

"Your vote doesn't count any more than anyone else's," she said. "You don't get to cancel them out. Patriotism means loyalty to country ... not to single head of state."

Dresch is one of nearly 600 Trump supporters who have been arrested in connection to the Capitol riot. The FBI is still seeking hundreds of others to include in its continually growing case. The US Department of Justice said the cases are likely the most complex it has ever managed.

The Capitol riot remains in the national consciousness seven months on. In July, police officers who defended the Capitol from the rioters testified before a House select committee about the injuries they sustained during the insurrection.

Officers recounted being shocked, beaten, drug down stairs, crushed, and having their lives threatened and being pelted with racial slurs.

Since then, it has been revealed that two officers who were at the riot have died by suicide, bringing the total number of officers who have taken their own lives following the Capitol riot to four.