Ex-Proud Boys organizer will get 17 years in jail, second-longest sentence in Jan. 6 Capitol riot case

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former organizer of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group was sentenced on Thursday to 17 years in jail for spearheading an assault on the U.S. Capitol to stop the peaceable switch of energy from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 presidential election.

The sentence for Joseph Biggs is the second-longest amongst a whole lot of Capitol riot circumstances thus far, after the 18-year jail sentence for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.

Federal prosecutors had advisable a 33-year jail sentence for Biggs, who helped lead dozens of Proud Boys members and associates in marching to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Biggs and different Proud Boys joined the mob that broke via police traces and compelled lawmakers to flee, disrupting the joint session of Congress for certifying the electoral victory by Biden, a Democrat.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly mentioned the Jan. 6 assault trampled on an “important American custom,” certifying the Electoral College vote.

“That day broke our tradition of peacefully transferring power, which is among the most precious things that we had as Americans,” the choose mentioned, emphasizing that he was utilizing the previous tense in gentle of how Jan. 6 affected the method.

Biggs acknowledged to the choose that he “messed up that day,” however he blamed being “seduced by the crowd” of Trump supporters outdoors the Capitol and mentioned he’s not a violent particular person or “a terrorist.”

“My curiosity got the better of me, and I’ll have to live with that for the rest of my life,” he mentioned, claiming he didn’t have “hate in my heart” and didn’t wish to damage folks.

Prosecutors, although, defended their determination to hunt 33 years behind bars for Biggs, saying it was justified as a result of he and his fellow Proud Boys dedicated “among the most serious crimes that this court will consider,” pushing the U.S. authorities “to the edge of a constitutional crisis.”

“There is a reason why we will hold our collective breath as we approach future elections,” prosecutor Jason McCullough mentioned. “We never gave it a second thought before January 6th.”

The choose who sentenced Biggs additionally will individually sentence 4 different Proud Boys who have been convicted by a jury in May after a four-month trial in Washington, D.C., that laid naked far-right extremists’ embrace of lies by Trump, a Republican, that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Enrique Tarrio, a Miami resident who was the Proud Boys’ nationwide chairman and high chief, is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday. His sentencing was moved from Wednesday to subsequent week as a result of the choose was sick.

Tarrio wasn’t in Washington on Jan. 6. He had been arrested two days earlier than the Capitol riot on expenses that he defaced a Black Lives Matter banner throughout an earlier rally within the nation’s capital, and he complied with a choose’s order to go away the town after his arrest. He picked Biggs and Proud Boys chapter president Ethan Nordean to be the group’s leaders on the bottom in his absence, prosecutors mentioned.

Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, was a self-described Proud Boys organizer. He served within the U.S. Army for eight years earlier than getting medically discharged in 2013. Biggs later labored as a correspondent for Infowars, the web site operated by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Biggs, Tarrio, Nordean and Proud Boys chapter chief Zachary Rehl have been convicted of expenses together with seditious conspiracy, a not often introduced Civil War-era offense. A fifth Proud Boys member, Dominic Pezzola, was acquitted of seditious conspiracy however was convicted of different critical expenses.

Prosecutors additionally advisable jail sentences of 33 years for Tarrio, 30 years for Rehl, 27 years for Nordean and 20 years for Pezzola. The choose is scheduled to condemn Rehl in a while Thursday. Pezzola and Nordean are scheduled to be sentenced on Friday.

Defense attorneys argued that the Justice Department was unfairly holding their shoppers chargeable for the violent actions of others within the crowd of Trump supporters on the Capitol.

More than 1,100 folks have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 600 of them have been convicted and sentenced.