Kazmierczak got 14 months for assaulting a member of Congress. Vinegar does not have to be a deadly weapon.

A federal sentence is a judgment on the charge that was pleaded — not a finding that the liquid was a deadly weapon. On Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, U.S. District Judge Joan N. Ericksen sentenced Anthony James Kazmierczak, 56, to 14 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release, including no contact with Rep. Ilhan Omar, after he pleaded guilty to assaulting a U.S. officer / federal official. Authorities said he sprayed a water-and-apple-cider-vinegar mix from a syringe at a Jan. 27 Minneapolis town hall; Omar was not injured and continued the event. Vinegar does not have to be charged or found as a deadly weapon for that plea and sentence to stick.

The town-hall clip is the conduct the plea covered. Security tackled him after the spray. Ericksen said the case was not spur-of-the-moment: he secured tickets weeks ahead, and spraying anything at an elected official is terrifying. That is the judge explaining the sentence. It is not a separate deadly-weapon count the court had to try. A government memo pointed to texts about dog care, bail contacts, and a vague “something” at the meeting. Planning evidence can support the official-assault judgment. It does not rewrite the liquid into a firearm.

He apologized in court. Counsel offered Parkinson’s and mental-health medication issues as mitigation. Those are arguments for a lower number. They are not medical findings, and they are not a not-guilty-by-insanity verdict. As of Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, the public record is a guilty plea, a 14-month term, supervised release, and a no-contact condition.