Thomas Caldwell is seen wearing a blue hat outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (U.S. Attorney’s Office).
A U.S. Navy veteran and Oath Keeper who rioted on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol in a Depends adult diaper was sentenced to time served this week.
Thomas Caldwell, 70, learned that he will avoid any further time in custody at his sentencing hearing on Friday in front of U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta, a Barack Obama appointee, court documents said. He served 53 days of incarceration at the Central Regional Jail in Virginia after his 2021 arrest.
Caldwell was acquitted of charges of seditious conspiracy. His conviction for obstructing Congress was overturned after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that it was wrongly applied to Jan. 6 defendants.
In their supplemental sentencing memo asking for the court to sentence Caldwell to 48 months, or four years of incarceration, prosecutors said Caldwell plotted with other affiliates of the Oath Keepers to forcibly oppose the certification of the 2020 presidential election. They said he joined the mob that attacked the Capitol.
“In his own words, Caldwell ‘heard that Pence f–––ed us … so I grabbed up my American flag and said let’s take the damn capitol’ and ‘let’s storm the place and hang the traitors.’”
Caldwell “climbed the steps after breaking 2 rows of barricades, then got on the parapets” and cheered as “the people in front of me broke through the doors and started duking it out with the pigs who broke and ran,” and “Then we started stealing the cops riot shields and throwing fire extinguishers through windows.”
In Caldwell’s view, “It was a great time,” court documents note.
“But when it became clear, roughly a week later, that law enforcement was investigating Caldwell and his associates, he destroyed evidence of their involvement in these crimes,” the government’s filing reads. “Caldwell’s efforts to obstruct the investigation into the attack on the Capitol, like his participation in the attack itself, show a disdain for the rule of law that merits the government’s recommended sentence.”
Caldwell’s lawyer, David W. Fischer, reacted in an email to The Associated Press, saying, “Mr. Caldwell was cleared of the four most serious counts and sentenced to no additional jail time by a highly respected federal judge.”
“Obviously, he should be considered for a pardon by President Trump,” the attorney added, referring to the returning president’s often-stated vows to grant clemency to Jan. 6 participants.
In court documents, Fischer said the government orchestrated an expensive, pre-dawn “Waco-style raid” on Caldwell’s home, “complete with a battering-ram tank, a dozen agents wielding machine guns, and laser dots pointed on Mrs. Caldwell’s forehead.”
“The FBI, as noted in previous filings, mistakenly believed that ‘Commander Tom’ — a reference to Caldwell’s Navy rank– was the ‘Commander’ of the Oath Keepers; that Caldwell was scouting an attack on the Capitol via a ‘pre-strike recce,’ which turned out to be a quest to determine the number and location of Port-o-Potties near the Ellipse and ended at Camelot D.C.; that Caldwell personally led a group of Oath Keepers inside of the Capitol; that Caldwell physically entered the Capitol based upon a picture of an outdoor construction tunnel; and that Caldwell plotted a pre-planned attack on the Capitol,” the defense filing reads.
“The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia at the time, Michael Sherwin, admitted that his office engaged in fast-moving ‘shock and awe’ tactics to dissuade future events like January 6,” he added. “The Government was obviously in a rush to make January 6 related arrests, which resulted in an unnecessary pre-dawn raid of Caldwell’s farm.”
He was among a group of Oath Keepers accused of crimes related to the Jan. 6 riots, including leader Stewart Rhodes, Law&Crime reported.
His wife told a jury her husband wore “Depends” adult diapers that day, Law&Crime previously reported. She denied her husband had any intent to break the law or overthrow the government, claiming he had severe back pain that day from multiple surgeries. One such surgery, she said, required pinning her husband’s shoulder to keep it in its socket.
Adam Klasfeld contributed to this report.
