A retired firefighter who went to a "cult deprogramming" expert to figure out how he came to believe Donald Trump's lies about the 2020 presidential election was sentenced to more than four years in federal prison on Tuesday for chucking a fire extinguisher at police officers as they protected the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Robert Sanford, wearing prison orange, told Senior Judge Paul L. Friedman that he was embarrassed, ashamed and disgusted by his behavior on Jan. 6. Sanford, who worked as a firefighter in Chester, Pennsylvania, was arrested in mid-Jan. 2021, and has already spent roughly eight months in custody, which will be shaved off his 52-month sentence.
He will also serve three years of supervised release.
"Mob mentality is real, and I got caught up in it," Sanford said, apologizing to the officers he assaulted and to first responders who saw his conduct that day, saying he'd been proud of the work he'd done as a firefighter.
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