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A leader of the Proud Boys who led the far-right organization’s infamous march on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, has been sentenced to 17 years in prison, one of the longest sentences handed down yet for a convicted troublemaker, according to CNN.
Joe Biggs was convicted by a Washington, DC jury of various crimes, including seditious conspiracy, for attempting to forcibly prevent the peaceful transfer of power from then-President Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 election.
A second member of the Proud Boys, former Marine Zachary Rehl, president of the organization’s local Philadelphia chapter, was later sentenced to 15 years.
These are some of the longest sentences in cases of the assault on the Capitol. The record is the 18-year sentence handed down to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, also convicted of seditious conspiracy, after prosecutors asked for 25 years in federal prison in his case.
“Our Constitution and our laws give you so many important rights that Americans have fought and died for and that you yourself donned a uniform to defend,” said U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly in sentencing Biggs. “People all over the world would give anything for these rights.”
But on January 6, 2021, Kelly said, he “broke our tradition of peaceful transfer of power” in the United States.
“The nature of the constitutional moment that we found ourselves in that day is something so sensitive that it deserves a significant sentence,” Judge Kelly said.
NBC News reported that Kelly ruled earlier in Thursday’s hearing that Biggs’s tearing down a fence separating police and rioters qualified him for an upgrade to the terrorism sentence requested by prosecutors. Destroying the fence was a “deliberate and significant step” that contributed to the disruption of the electoral vote count that occurred on Capitol Hill, Kelly said.
Biggs was found guilty in May of seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct official procedure, obstruction of official procedure, conspiracy to use force, intimidation or threats to prevent US officials from carrying out their duties; interference with law enforcement during civil disturbances and destruction of government property.
Biggs went to trial alongside Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola. All five were convicted of felonies, and all except Pezzola were convicted of seditious conspiracy. The other Proud Boys will also be sentenced in the coming days: Rehl on Thursday afternoon, Pezzola and Nordean on Friday and Tarrio on Tuesday.
Keep reading:
– Members of the Proud Boys could receive record sentences this week for the assault on the Capitol
– Prosecutors ask for 33 years in prison for former Latino leader of the Proud Boys for attack on the Capitol
– 4 members of the far-right group Proud Boys are sentenced for sedition after the attack on the US Capitol.