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Proud Boys Leader Gets 17-year Jail Term For Attacking US Capitol In Support Of Ex-President Trump
Eko Hot Blog reports that Joe Biggs, a leader of the Proud Boys who led the far-right organization’s infamous march to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, has been sentenced to 17 years in prison.
According to CNN, the 17-year jail term is among the longest sentences handed down yet for a convicted rioter.
Biggs was convicted by a Washington, DC jury of several charges 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.
“Our Constitution and laws give you so many important rights that Americans have fought and died for and that you yourself put on a uniform to defend,” District Judge Timothy Kelly said in handing down the sentence.
“People around the world would give anything for these rights.”
But January 6, 2021, Kelly said, “broke our tradition of the peaceful transferring of power” in the United States.
“The nature of the constitutional moment we were in that day is something that is so sensitive that it deserves a significant sentence,” he said.
Prosecutors initially asked Kelly to sentence Biggs to 33 years in prison – nearly double the longest sentence a defendant has received related to the January 6, 2021 attack – arguing that Biggs and his codefendants “intentionally positioned themselves at the vanguard of political violence in this country” for years and on January 6, 2021 sought to “change the course of American history.”
But Kelly went significantly below that request, saying that he did not want to “minimize the violence that did occur” during the Capitol attack, but that he had to be conscious of what other people have been sentenced to for conduct related to January 6, 2021 as to not create large or unwarranted disparities.
In a passionate appeal to the judge before the sentencing, Biggs said that “I know that I have to be punished and I understand,” but added “please give me the chance, I beg you, to take my daughter to school and pick her up.”
“I know that I messed up that day, but I am not a terrorist,” he said through tears. Biggs said that he was “seduced” by the mob and “just moved forward.”
“I wanted to see what would happen,” he said. “My curiosity got the best of me and I’m going to have to live with that for the rest of my life.”
The hefty sentence is the second longest sentence handed down for a defendant convicted as part of the Capitol attack.
The founder and leader of another far-right group, Oath Keeper, Stewart Rhodes has received the longest sentence of 18 years in prison.
Former US President Donald Trump arriving in New York for his arraignment on April 4, 2023
Trump, who encouraged the mob to invade the capitol is facing two separate criminal cases related to his efforts to overturn his election loss.
He has pled not guilty to the federal and state charges.
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