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Carolyn Kaster/AP
Joseph Biggs, a former navy service member who helped lead efforts by the Proud Boys to take over the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced to 17 years in jail for seditious conspiracy and different crimes dedicated throughout the riot greater than two years in the past.
Choose Timothy J. Kelly additionally sentenced Biggs to a few years of supervised launch and a ban on any interactions with organizations that advocate violence in opposition to the federal government.
The sentence is much beneath the 33 yr sentence sought by prosecutors.
Again in Could, he was convicted alongside former Proud Boys nationwide chairman Enrique Tarrio and different fellow Proud Boys Ethan Nordean and Zachary Rehl. A fourth defendant, Dominic Pezzola, was acquitted of seditious conspiracy however discovered responsible of assaulting, resisting or impeding sure officers and theft involving authorities property.
Prosecutors additionally wished to use a “terrorism enhancement,” which results in longer jail phrases, given his crimes.
Choose Kelly selected to use that enhancement to one among Biggs’ expenses relating to his position within the destruction of a fence surrounding the U.S. Capitol constructing which, as soon as gone, not saved the mob again from legislation enforcement defending the constructing.
Essentially the most extreme sentence doled out to Jan. 6 rioters to this point is eighteen years given to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes. He was equally convicted of seditious conspiracy in a separate case in Could.
Earlier than being sentenced, Biggs begged for forgiveness and leniency. He downplayed his position within the Jan. 6 riots and stated that day was set to be the final occasion he deliberate to do with the Proud Boys as he had plans to step again from the group.
“I used to be seduced by the gang,” Biggs stated of the mob in entrance of the U.S. Capitol. “Curiosity received the higher of me and I’ll remorse that for the remainder of my life.”
Biggs cried as he begged Kelly to permit him a possibility to be current for his younger daughter who was molested by a member of the family and is now within the care of his mom.
“I’m not a terrorist,” he stated. “I do know I’ve to be punished, however no less than give me the chance to take my daughter to high school someday.”
As the primary of the 5 co-defendants within the Proud Boys’ Jan. 6 case to be sentenced, Biggs’ punishment signifies a chance of equally aggressive penalties for the opposite members he was convicted with.
The sentencing hearings for Tarrio and Nordean, initially scheduled for Wednesday, had been delayed after Kelly fell sick.
Nordean’s listening to is rescheduled for Friday and Tarrio’s for Tuesday, Sept. 5.
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