Proud Boy Joseph Biggs hit with 17-year prison sentence over Jan. 6 conviction
Ashley Oliver
Video Embed
A former Proud Boys leader was sentenced on Thursday to 17 years in prison over his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, one of the highest sentences of the hundreds handed out but far lower than what prosecutors wanted.
Joseph Biggs, a 39-year-old Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient, sat dressed in his orange prison uniform as he listened in a D.C. federal courtroom to U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly calculate out his penalty. Kelly noted Biggs would also be required to pay restitution of a to-be-determined amount.
TRUMP’S GOP SUPPORT HAS ONLY CLIMBED SINCE THE INDICTMENTS BEGAN
Biggs was convicted in May along with three co-defendants of seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, among other charges, for his role in leading a group of about 200 to breach the Capitol. A fifth co-defendant was acquitted of the seditious conspiracy charge but convicted of several others.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly focused on Biggs working with others to break down a fence, the final major barrier to breaching the Capitol, to support enhancing his sentence.
“Tearing down that fence was a discreet act that facilitated the crowd’s surge forward,” Kelly said, and “was specifically to obstruct the administration of justice,” which is one guideline a judge can use to enhance the sentence.
A terrorism enhancement was also applied because of the fence, which Kelly noted would “dramatically affect” the final outcome.
“I really don’t think it is a close call,” Kelly said of adding that particular enhancement.
Biggs’s attorney Norm Pattis warned about the repercussions a severe sentence would have on free speech because of the many messages Biggs sent on social media before and after the riot. His client did not personally physically injure anyone during it.
Biggs, along with former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola, have all been expected to receive some of the harshest penalties in the case following their four-month trial. Seditious conspiracy, a rare charge established during the Civil War, carries a maximum penalty of 20 years.
When Biggs, who has been in prison for more than two years, took the stand, he became tearful, saying, “I know that I messed up that day, but I’m not a terrorist … I didn’t hurt anybody.”
He focused heavily on his daughter, whom he said was his sole priority, and said that while he disagreed with the judge’s determinations, he respected “the process” and “the outcome.”
The sentence is a blow to prosecutors, who sought 33 years for Biggs, and are seeking decades-long sentences for the other four as well. They sought 25 years for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes for similar charges. The judge ended up sentencing Rhodes to 18 years, the highest so far.
Prosecutors had argued that in addition to invoking his military experience as he coordinated the riot, his celebratory remarks in the days that followed were incriminating.
“Biggs recorded a podcast-style interview in which he called January 6 a ‘warning shot’ to the government that showed them ‘how weak they truly are’ after being ‘b***ch-slapped’ . . . on their own home turf,” they wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
The hearing comes after a four-month trial during which a jury was presented with witness testimony, including from Capitol Police, and evidence in the form of video footage, Telegram messages, social media posts, and more.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“They unleashed a force on the Capitol that was calculated to exert their political will on elected officials by force and to undo the results of a democratic election,” prosecutors wrote in the memorandum. “The foot soldiers of the right aimed to keep their leader in power. They failed. They are not heroes; they are criminals.”
Pattis said in court that while he does not deny that crimes were committed on Jan. 6, Biggs’s have been “overstated.”
He observed that his client had spent two years in prison and been subject to solitary confinement.
“I think he got the message,” Pattis said.
Rehl is set to receive his sentence later on Thursday, and the other co-defendants will receive theirs in the coming days.