Peter Schwartz

The police threw tear gas into the crowd and sprayed bear spray into the face of many protestors.  Pete was in the melee in which Roseanne Boyland died.   Pete was armed with a wooden tire knocker when he and Shelly joined others in the chaos of police officers on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace, where he threw a folding chair at officers.  Pete maintains he was protecting his wife from the onslaught of spray and batons.  The DOJ stated,“By throwing that chair, Schwartz directly contributed to the fall of the police line that enabled rioters to flood forward and take over the entire terrace.”

Schwartz, 49, also armed himself with a police-issued “super soaker” canister of pepper spray and sprayed it at retreating officers. Advancing to a tunnel entrance, Schwartz coordinated with two other rioters, Markus Maly and Jeffrey Brown, to spray an orange liquid toward officers clashing with the mob.“While the stream of liquid did not directly hit any officer, its effect was to heighten the feeling of danger to the officers in that tunnel,” the DOJ claimed.

Pete was arrested February 4, 2021, and has been in solitary confinement for most of the two years until May 5, 2023 when he was sentenced.

Afterwards, Shelly was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and was arrested a year later in February of 2022.  She was devastated by the DOJs treatment of both her and her husband.  It was crushing for her to go through the cancer diagnosis and treatment alone.  Even with cancer, Shelley was sentenced to two years of hard time.  Shelley and Pete are now divorced.

Peter has raised over $71,000 from an online campaign entitled “Patriot Pete Political Prisoner in DC.” The DOJ wanted to take the entire amount from Pete saying he “shouldn’t profit” from the riot.

Pete’s attorneys requested a prison sentence offour years and six months. They said his actions on Jan. 6 were motivated by a “misunderstanding” about the 2020 presidential election.

Judge Amit Mehta called Schwartz a “soldier against democracy” at his sentencing hearing,” who participated in “the kind of mayhem, chaos that had never been seen in the country’s history.”  Mehta went on to say Pete “took it upon [himself] to try and injure multiple police officers” on the day of the riot.”  Pete maintains he was defending himself and others from the sprays and batons of Capitol Police.

Judge Mehta was born in India and grew up in Maryland, going to college at Georgetown.  Judge Mehtagrew up in the DCsurrounding areas, attended college in DCbut has never lived anywhere else.He was appointed by Obama.He scolded Pete and said, “You can go on these podcasts and claim to be a victim of a political prosecution.  You are not a political prisoner. You’re not somebody who is standing up to injustice.”

Peter Schwartz’s prison sentence is one of the longest of Capitol riot cases. Mehta outdid his previous harsh sentence that he handed down to a former Police Officer. Pete was found guilty on four counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and six other charges, including obstructing an official proceeding, entering a restricted building with a dangerous weapon, and engaging in physical violence in a restricted building.

Pete briefly addressed the judge before learning his sentence, saying, “I do sincerely regret the damage that Jan. 6 has caused to so many people and their lives.”Mehta said he didn’t believe him.