Judge denies access to rioter's community service records

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has denied a news media coalition's request for public access to records of court-ordered community service by one of the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol last year.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled Wednesday that Anna Morgan-Lloyd's community service records are not “judicial records” subject to public disclosure because they played no role in the judge's decision-making process.

Several news outlets, including The Associated Press, jointly requested access to the records of community service by Morgan-Lloyd, the first Capitol rioter to be sentenced. In June, Lamberth sentenced the Indiana woman to three years of probation and ordered her to perform 120 hours of community service.

Dozens of Capitol rioters have been ordered to perform community service as a condition of probation. Probation officers typically monitor a defendant's community service but do not publicly report on their compliance.

News outlets' lawyers argued that Morgan-Lloyd's community service records would shed light on a “vital but hidden aspect of the judicial process” and are “directly connected to an unprecedented episode in American history."

At her sentencing hearing, Morgan-Lloyd told Lamberth that she was ashamed of the “savage display of violence” at the Capitol. A day later, however, she told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that people were “very polite” during the riot, that she saw “relaxed” police officers chatting with rioters and that she didn’t believe the Jan. 6 attack was an insurrection.

News outlets' lawyers argued that public access to Morgan-Lloyd's records is particularly important because her sentence serves as a “bellwether” for many other cases. The lawyers also said her comments on Ingraham's show raise doubts about “the...