Two-time Olympic gold medalist sentenced for his role in Capitol riot

NEW DELHI: Klete Keller, two-time Olympic gold medalist, was sentenced on Friday to six months of house arrest over his role in the January 6 US Capitol riot, reported The New York Post.

DC Senior US District Judge Richard Leon sentenced the 41-year-old former champion swimmer to three years probation and ordered him to perform 360 hours of community service.

“I have no excuse for why I am in front of you today,” Keller told Leon before receiving his sentence, according to The Post.

“I understand my actions were criminal and that I am fully responsible for my conduct,” he reportedly said.

In court documents submitted last month, lawyers representing Keller urged the judge to consider probation and a restitution payment for the former swimmer. They contended that Keller's early admission of guilt, being among the first to plead guilty in the case, merited leniency.

Attorney Zachary Deubler underscored several factors supporting a non-custodial sentence, including Keller's brief presence at the Capitol, the absence of harm or damage caused by him, and his clean arrest record prior to this incident.

“Although Keller’s conduct at the Capitol was inexcusable, his behaviour was non-violent—and arguably far less disruptive than many of the [other] defendants,” Deubler wrote, as per The Post.

“This Court should not lump Keller’s conduct in with some of the more serious offenders but instead should consider Keller’s relatively minor role.”

According to The Post, the prosecutors asked for a 10-month sentence, arguing that "Keller had tried to conceal his participation in that day’s riot by throwing the jacket he wore — with an American flag on a sleeve, an Olympic team patch on the front and the letters “USA” across the back — into a garbage can and smashing his cellphone with a hammer".

“Klete Derik Keller once wore the American flag as an Olympian. On January 6, 2021, he threw that flag in a trash can,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo last month.

Keller was allegedly seen among a group that allegedly pushed law enforcement officers while forcibly entering the Capitol Rotunda, attempting to impede the certification of the 2020 Electoral College results.