The guitarist, Jon Schaffer, from the heavy metal band Iced Earth, has had his sentencing for his alleged involvement in the January 6th Capitol riots postponed. His original hearing was going to be on April 5th but has now been moved to July 19th. His previous date had been February 20th but had been delayed due to medical reasons. Judge Amit P. Mehta is the judge responsible for this case and has stated that they delayed this sentencing due to the Joseph W. Fischer v. United States case. This case deals with “the issue is whether prosecutors and the Department of Justice have been improperly using a 2002 law originally aimed at curbing financial crimes to prosecute a January 6 defendant named Joseph Fischer. Should the court side with Fischer, it would also call into question the use of the law against other January 6 defendants — including Schaffer” stated a Blabbermouth writer.

Schaffer was initially charged with six different crimes yet only pleaded guilty to two: obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress and trespassing on restricted grounds of the Capitol while armed with a deadly or dangerous weapon. If convicted of these two crimes Schaffer will be looking at the possibility of a 30-year sentence and a fine that can be as much as $250,000. The Department Of Justice said it would recommend a sentence for Schaffer between 41 and 51 months in prison and fines ranging between $15,000 and $250,000.

With all of this going on, Schaffer acknowledges that he did take part in this riot and was wearing a tactical vest clad with bear spray and was within the mob that forced their way into the Capitol building. Schaffer admitted to being among the first individuals to push past the broken doors and into the Capitol building.

Due to his plea deal, Schaffer has been offered by the DOJ to be put in witness protection and possibly receive less of a sentencing.