The two former leaders of the far-right extremist group, Proud Boys, have been sentenced to more than a decade in prison for leading the attack on the US Capitol in 2021 in a failed attempt to overturn the 2020 US presidential election result that had Donald Trump lose his second White House bid. Proud Boys organiser Joseph Biggs was given a 17-year term while Zachary Rehl, a leader of the group was granted a 15-year sentence, which is the second and third longest sentence handed down over the January 6, 2021 attack.
The prison terms were handed down by US District Judge Timothy Kelly. They were the first Proud Boys members convicted of seditious conspiracy to be sentenced for their roles in the attack. However, this was below US sentencing guidelines and much lower than the 33-year and 30-year terms the federal prosecutors sought.
Before his sentencing, Biggs apologised for his actions, “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”, he was quoted by news agency Reuters as saying.
Meanwhile, Rehl broke down crying as he read his 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”, as per the news agency. He too apologised and asked the judge if he could be sent to a federal prison close to his home.
According to Reuters, the prosecutors had calculated the sentencing recommendation for Rehl based on perjury he committed when he took the stand in his own defence during the trial and lied about assaulting the police with a chemical spray.
On January 6, 2021, dozens of Proud Boys leaders, members, and associates were among the first rioters to breach the Capitol. According to an Associated Press report, Biggs tore down a fence and charged up the scaffolding before entering the Capitol. Rehl was seen in a video spraying a chemical irritant at police officers outside the Capitol, which he has denied. He led three other men into the Capitol in a senator’s office where he smoked and posed for pictures with the Proud Boys hand gesture, prosecutors said.
Over 1,100 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. More than 600 of them have been convicted and sentenced, reports AP.
The Capitol attack was meant to stop Congress from certifying Democratic President Joe Biden’s election win, which the former Republican president falsely claimed was the result of a widespread fraud.