An Upstate New York judge under investigation for attending the Jan. 6, 2021 rally in Washington, D.C. where Donald Trump loyalists stormed the U.S. Capital has resigned.
The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct announced on Friday that Schuyler County Judge Donald R. Spaccio had stepped down from the bench
Spaccio also allegedly “shouted at police officers and invoked his judicial office when they asked him to remove a propane cannon from the roof of his building.”
Investigators said they notified the judge he was under investigation in April for allegedly attending a political rally, which is largely prohibited for authorities in his position.
Spaccio served as a justice for the Montour Falls Village Court since 2001. He was added to the Montour Town Court in 2005.
The judge is said to have tendered his resignation letter Sept. 9. He would have been up for renewal at the village court in March 2026 and in the town court at the end of 2025.
“Judges may not engage in political activity except for a limited time when running for office, and even then there are constraints on what they may do,” Commission Administrator Robert H. Tembeckjian said in the commission’s statement announcing Spaccio’s exit. “Whether or not a judge was a candidate, attending the rally in Washington on January 6, 2021, was impermissible.”
Trump’s Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally was held over his false claim that he had actually won the 2020 presidential election. More than 1,200 people have been arrested over the attack on the Capitol.
It’s not clear if Spaccio was on Capitol Hill during the attack.