US Capitol riots: Proud Boys leader given 18-year sentence for January 6th attack

Two members of the far-right Proud Boys militia group who took part in the January 6th, 2021 attack on the US Capitol with the intention of keeping Donald Trump in the White House were sentenced to lengthy prison terms on Friday.

Ethan Nordean, described by prosecutors as a leader of the extremist group, received an 18-year sentence from the federal judge Timothy Kelly in Washington DC for crimes that included seditious conspiracy, committed when thousands of Trump supporters overran the Capitol building.

Dominic Pezzola, who attacked a police officer and was filmed using the officer’s shield to smash a window, received 10 years, following his conviction in May for assault and obstructing an official proceeding. Prosecutors had sought a 20-year term.

The pair, described by prosecutors as “foot soldiers of the right [who] aimed to keep their leader in power”, were part of a mob seeking to disrupt the certification by a joint session of Congress of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. Nine deaths have been linked to the riot, including law enforcement suicides.

Judge Kelly reportedly told Nordean that he wished there was an “alternative history” where he did something other than lead the Proud Boys, complimenting him as a smart and articulate man. Nordean – of Auburn, Washington – said: “I would like to apologise for my lack of leadership that day,” according to Jordan Fischer of the WUSA television news outlet.

Sentencing Pezzola, Kelly said: “You were the one who smashed that window and let people begin to stream into that Capitol building and threaten the lives of our lawmakers. It’s not something I would have ever dreamed I would have seen in our country.”

Pezzola told the court he was “a changed and humbled man”, his “sorrow and regret ... unimaginable”. But as he left the court after being sentenced, Pezzola shouted: “Trump won.”

His sentence was among the lengthiest handed down to those convicted of offences linked to the Capitol attack, in which 140 police officers were injured.

Pezzola, of Rochester, New York, posted to social media a profanity-laced video of himself inside the Capitol.

Prosecutors had asked for a 27-year term for Nordean, of Auburn, Washington.

The former leader of the Proud Boys group Enrique Tarrio is expected to be sentenced next week in relation to several felony counts linked to the Capitol attack.

Prosecutors have recommended that Tarrio receive a 33-year prison term. This would, by far, be the harshest sentence handed down to anyone convicted on foot of the wide-ranging investigation by US authorities into the attack.

Stewart Rhodes, founder of another right-wing group the Oath Keepers, was last May sentenced to 18 years in prison after being convicted on seditious conspiracy charges relating to January 6th.

Tarrio had been scheduled to be sentenced earlier this week but it was deferred until next Tuesday after the judge in the case became ill.

On Thursday a federal judge in Washington handed down lengthy sentences to two other members of the Proud Boys.

Joseph Biggs was sentenced to 17 years in prison and his co-defendant Zachary Rehl to 15 years, after a jury convicted them of seditious conspiracy for storming the US Capitol in a failed bid to overturn Mr Trump’s 2020 election defeat.

The sentences set out by US district judge Timothy Kelly, however, were below US sentencing guidelines and far lower than the 33-year and 30-year terms that had been sought by federal prosecutors.

The judge said on Thursday he was not “trying to minimise the violence” that occurred on January 6th, but he noted that the event was still not on par with a mass-casualty event and said imposing a stricter sentence could create disparities.

In advance of his sentencing, Biggs apologised for his actions as he faced the judge, choking up as he spoke about his daughter whom he said was a sexual assault victim who needed him while he has been in prison.

“I was seduced by the crowd, and I just moved forward. My curiosity got the better of me,” said Biggs.

“I’m not a terrorist. I don’t have hate in my heart.”

Rehl, meanwhile, broke down as he read a statement.

“I regret involving myself with any of it,” he said.

He added that he let politics consume his life and he “lost track of who and what matters”.

He also apologised for letting his family down and asked if the judge could send him to a federal prison close to his home.

The sentencing recommendations made by prosecutors were based, in part, on evidence he committed perjury when he took the stand in his own defence during the trial and lied about assaulting police with a chemical spray.

“You did spray that officer and you lied about it,” judge Kelly told him, adding these were “bad facts”.

In one of the debates during his 2020 presidential campaign, Mr Trump famously told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” when he was asked by the moderator to denounce white supremacists. - Additional reporting: Guardian

[ January 6th attacks: Proud Boys convictions a significant victory for US authorities ]