Background: Department of Justice court records depict footage of Jack Wade Whitton, center and inset, apparently using a metal crutch to assault police officers at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Inset: Jack Wade Whitton, Jan. 6, 2021 (YouTube screengrab footage from NBC affiliate WXIA).
A former CrossFit instructor turned rioter who beat and dragged police while telling them they were “gonna die tonight” on Jan. 6 will not be sentenced this week as planned after new video emerged allegedly showing him assaulting a different police officer defending the U.S. Capitol from a mob of former President Donald Trump‘s supporters.
Jack Wade Whitton, of Georgia, pleaded guilty in September 2022 to attacking police at the Capitol, admitting he used a metal crutch to beat one officer before kicking another and then dragging the one he assaulted with the crutch down a flight of steps.
That same officer, a statement of offense shows, was beaten with a flagpole and baton by other rioters as Whitton dragged him. Court records show Whitton admitted to walking up to a line of police and kicking at them as someone screamed at him to stop but instead, he struck at police riot shields, continued kicking officers and vowed: “You’re gonna die tonight.”
The maximum possible sentence for the assault conviction was 20 years; prosecutors sought eight years. A review of the docket at the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia shows that Whitton was due for sentencing on Wednesday, but it has since been postponed to May 2.
That is the second time that’s happened in recent months. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras had scheduled a December sentencing date for Whitton in November. But that was moved to March and now, it’s been delayed again and without much public explanation provided by prosecutors.
However, it was the delay that was granted on Tuesday March 19, the same day that NBC News reported on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that the internet sleuths known as Sedition Hunters turned up new video appearing to show a separate incident allegedly involving Whitton assaulting police — including dragging an officer by his foot.
The video purportedly shows Whitton in the separate altercation here:
Jack Wade Whitton, AKA #Scallops, is set to be sentenced tomorrow for dragging an officer into the mob on Jan. 6.
But #SeditionHunters turned up a separate incident involving him yanking another officer by the foot that wasn’t mentioned in DOJ’s sentencing memo.
Here’s video: pic.twitter.com/xSZQcxpgDK
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) March 19, 2024
In his own sentencing memorandum filed in November, the 33-year-old — who had admitted to being in an area of the west plaza where some of the worst violence had occurred — chalked up his conduct to being “highly intoxicated” on Fireball whiskey and consuming one Adderall pill as he and his girlfriend were in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6.
“Whitton purchased numerous mini bottles of Fireball alcohol to drink throughout the day. He quickly learned that it was a longer than expected walk to the ellipse, and he was unaccustomed to the cold. Uninterested in the day’s events but trying to be a good boyfriend, Mr. Whitton drank less for entertainment and more to simply get through the cold and speeches at the ellipse,” his sentencing memorandum states.
While admitting to “wrongly placing himself in the situation,” Whitton also argued there was an all-consuming “chaos” surrounding him in the area where rioter Roseanne Boyland died.
Whitton (circled in orange) pulls Officer B.M. (circled in white) by his helmet into the mob (via FBI court filing).
Whitton asked the court to be lenient considering abuse he claimed to experience at the hands of his father and his experience with poverty including “being a young boy and having to go to the bathroom in buckets outside in the backyard” of his childhood home. He also cited being chased by neighborhood children with bats when he was young and noted a trauma from “vicious dogs” who “suspiciously attacked his sister Amanda when she was only six years old.”
Whitton also asked the court to consider his mother’s “verbal abuse.”
In therapy on and off since he was 14, court records show Whitton admitted to having a “severe history of substance abuse, beginning at 16 years old.” But as he got older, the Fayetteville, Georgia, resident said in his sentencing memorandum that he managed to get himself more on the straight and narrow. He found a job as a certified CrossFit personal trainer in 2011 and it was in 2017 when he opted to leave that work to co-found a fencing business. Whitton said he was earning a six-figure salary and expanding his business opportunities before he was arrested for his actions on Jan. 6.
Prosecutors did not return a request seeking comment on the latest delay of Whitton’s sentencing. Nor did Whitton’s attorney.
But in their own 41-page sentencing memorandum filed in November, prosecutors urged the court to recognize that Whitton committed a brutal assault and did so proudly, boasting that he “fed a [police officer] to the people.” on Jan. 6 after assaulting that officer with a metal crutch.
In one text, he admitted he didn’t know of the officer’s status.
“And don’t care tbh,” Whitton wrote, using shorthand for “to be honest.”
Justice Department court exhibit shows text message from Jack Wade Whitton telling a friend he “fed” a police officer “to the people” on Jan. 6, 2021. (Redaction added for obscenity.)
With the help of his girlfriend, since being charged, Whitton has also raised roughly $61,000 through online fundraisers to “capitalize” on his crimes, according to prosecutors.
That online fundraising campaign, court records indicated in November, has since been “unpublished” online but visitors to the GiveSendGo link are now redirected to “send money to Whitton directly at the BOP facility at which he is housed.”
As a result, prosecutors asked the court to impose a fine of roughly $61,000 for this profiteering plus $2,000 in direct restitution for damages at the Capitol.
A review of the docket Wednesday shows that some filings appearing to be connected to the GiveSendGo account were made under seal on March 19,
Whitton’s attorney, Komron Jon Maknoon filed a 1-page notice on Tuesday with the court stating that Whitton’s girlfriend “understands the GiveSendGo funds were distributed to the defendant’s prior and current counsel, as well as legal/travel expenses, a psychological evaluation, and defendant’s commissary purchases, thus exceeding the raised amount.”
In addition to the eight year sentence requested, prosecutors also want Whitton to be on supervised release for three years.
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