The Burly Texas-Born Judge Fighting Efforts to Play Down Jan. 6

WASHINGTON—In a handwritten letter, the mother of Taylor James Johnatakis declared him “absolutely not a criminal,” despite his conviction on a raft of charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

For Judge Royce Lamberth, there was just one problem with the letter and others praising Johnatakis: The portrayals didn’t square with the evidence. So when the judge sentenced Johnatakis earlier this month to more than seven years in prison, he took some time to explain his thinking—and then went a step further. Lamberth published a written version of his remarks in an unusual public court filing he styled as “Notes for Sentencing,” and ordered the court clerk to send a copy to those who had written in support of Johnatakis.

“In any angry mob, there are leaders and there are followers. Mr. Johnatakis was a leader,” Lamberth said. “He knew what he was doing that day.”

At 80, the Reagan-appointed federal district judge has emerged as a leading voice pushing back against attempts by Republican politicians to play down the Jan. 6 attack by Donald Trump supporters as Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory. While other judges routinely excoriate these defendants at sentencing and condemn the Capitol attack, Lamberth’s notes have created a more enduring record, amplifying full remarks that would otherwise be available only to those present in his courtroom or who bothered to obtain an expensive transcript.

Packaged in an easily shared court document, the notes have found traction online. YouTube personalities have devoted videos to reading his notes aloud. A video posted Monday has received more than 400,000 views. On social media, he has been treated as something of a judicial folk hero.

“Judge Lamberth is a national treasure,” University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck said on X after Johnatakis’s sentencing.

It wasn’t the first time Lamberth had used such methods to send a message about the Capitol riot. In a note memorializing his remarks at a sentencing earlier this year, Lamberth said he was “shocked to watch some public figures try to rewrite history” and martyrize “convicted January 6 defendants as ‘political prisoners’ or even, incredibly, ‘hostages.’”

“That is all preposterous,” he said.

Lamberth hasn’t named Trump or any other Republican politician in his notes. But his remarks have come against the backdrop of the former president referring to Jan. 6 defendants as “hostages” and signaling he would issue pardons if he’s re-elected.

Lamberth has long loomed large just blocks away from the Capitol at the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse. In the lead-up to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and their aftermath, he oversaw the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. He served as the chief judge on Washington’s federal trial court before taking senior status in 2013.

Down the hall from his top-floor chambers, his portrait stands out as wider than the others adorning the ceremonial courtroom’s wood-paneled walls. The burly Texas-born judge is pictured in robes beside his treasured collection of custom blown-glass longhorn figurines.

In an interview, Lamberth said he was astounded by justifications for the Capitol attack seeming to enter the mainstream “in a very unhealthy way that was impugning the integrity of the judicial system.”

“That,” he said, “needed someone to speak out.”

Lamberth has received praise for defending the integrity of the courts. With his notes, the judge has found an elegant solution to address rhetoric about the Capitol attack, said Nancy Gertner, a former federal judge in Massachusetts.

“He could have written a formal opinion, and this is a much more efficient way of accomplishing that,” she said.

Lamberth has also faced blowback. Last month, a defense lawyer urged Lamberth to consider recusing himself from a Capitol riot case, arguing that he is “hostile to January 6 defendants.” Lamberth declined to step aside.

His notes also have come as federal judges face a rising number of threats and grapple with how to speak out without veering outside their lane as neutral arbiters. Lamberth himself has received death threats left in his chambers’ voicemail.

His note in January recorded his remarks at the resentencing of James Little, a North Carolina man who had pleaded guilty to illegally parading inside the Capitol. In a scathing statement, Lamberth said he was “dismayed to see distortions and outright falsehoods seep into the public consciousness.”

“The Court cannot condone the shameless attempts by Mr. Little or anyone else to misinterpret or misrepresent what happened,” he said.

In the Johnatakis case, Lamberth spent considerable time addressing the letters he read from friends and family that extolled the defendant’s dedication as a father and denied he could possibly be a criminal.

“One thing that strikes me about the letters is that few of the authors seem to know what he actually did,” Lamberth said.

Lamberth underscored video evidence that showed Johnatakis leading an angry mob up the Capitol’s southwest stairs and directing them with a megaphone, yelling, “one, two, three, GO!” He pointed out that Johnatakis had joined other rioters in picking up metal barricades and slamming them into the police.

“In our system of justice, we punish people not for their overall character, but for their actions,” he said at the sentencing. “Living an otherwise-blameless life does not grant anyone a free pass.”

For Lamberth, the public attention was the desired effect.

“We’re a public institution. We’re accountable to the public,” he said in the interview. “I think the courts have an obligation to have the public understand what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.”

Write to C. Ryan Barber at [email protected]