Court Vacates “Lenient” Sentence For Paul’s Attacker

The Hill reports:

A federal appeals court on Monday vacated a 30-day prison sentence for a neighbor of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) who assaulted him in 2017, ruling it was overly lenient while ordering a re-sentencing.

In a 16-page opinion, Judge Jane B. Stranch of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., writes that the lower court where Rene Boucher pleaded guilty to assaulting a member of Congress had “no compelling justification” for sentencing him far below federal guidelines.

More recent cases involving assaults on federal officers involve significantly longer sentences such as a 2015 sentence of 24 months for a defendant who pushed a door into the arm of a government doctor and a 2014 case where the defendant was given 21 months for bloodying a customs officer’s nose and ear.