Monitor Editor
RAIFORD— A former Union Correctional Institution officer said President Donald Trump bears some of the responsibility for his arrest at the U.S. Capitol last year.
Jonathan Daniel Carlton pleaded guilty in March to misdemeanor charges related to his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, capitol riot.
In a memorandum sent to the court before his sentencing, Carlton’s attorney Richard Landes wrote that his client “was one of the many manipulated and used by Mr. Trump for his own selfish purposes.” Landes added: “While Carlton accepts responsibility for his actions, he was guided and urged by no less of an authority than the president of the United States and a majority of Republican senators and congressmen that continued to repeat the ‘Big Lie’ that the election had been stolen by the Democrats.”
Landes, arguing for probation for his client, wrote that after Carlton pleaded guilty, the Department of Corrections terminated his employment at UCI. “Carlton is now not only unemployed, but he will lose his subsidized housing that was provided as part of his employment,” Landes wrote. “He will be forced to uproot his family; his children may need to attend new schools because of where Carlton may need to move to seek new employment. As a corrections officer, if Carlton is sentenced to any term of incarceration, he would necessarily need to be housed in protective custody, essentially locked down for 23 or more hours a day, as he would be a target in jail. A sentence of incarceration would be unduly harsh considering Carlton’s actions, and not necessary to serve the ends of justice.”
