A man who ran for the congressional seat previously held by former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) taunted a federal judge’s decision to immediately send him to prison for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
Philip Sean Grillo, who was sentenced Friday to 12 months in prison, let it be known in court that President-elect Trump would likely pardon him.
“Trump’s gonna pardon me anyways,” Grillo, a New York district leader from Queens, said as U.S. Marshals took him into custody.
In 2023, Grillo was found guilty of the felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding, along with a series of misdemeanors. After the Supreme Court narrowed the government’s use of obstruction law this summer, Grillo filed a motion for acquittal on that count.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who presided over the case, sentenced Grillo on Friday for the remaining misdemeanor counts.
“I will do my job as I’m bound by oath to do, and the president will do his. It’s as simple as that,” the judge said.
Grillo declared candidacy for Santos’ seat in 2023. However, despite an interest in politics, Lamberth argued that, for now, defendants should be prosecuted without regard to their “political affiliation or any other attribute.”
“Having read dozens of indictments related to Jan. 6, I can say confidently: Nobody has been prosecuted for protected First Amendment activity. Nobody is being held hostage. Nobody has been made a prisoner of conscience. Every rioter is in the situation he or she is in because he or she broke the law, and for no other reason,” Lamberth stated.
More than 1,500 rioters have been charged in connection with the Capitol attack.
