
© US District Court for the District of ColumbiaJoe Biggs outside the Capitol, January 6, 2021
Joe Biggs, a Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy who the government says "served as an instigator and leader" during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison Thursday.
It is among the longest sentences in Capitol riot cases. The record is the
18-year sentence given to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, also convicted of seditious conspiracy, after prosecutors
sought 25 years in federal prison.
The government sought 33 years for Biggs, an Army veteran who sustained a head injury in Iraq and then was a correspondent for the conspiracy website Infowars.
Prosecutors
argued Biggs was "a vocal leader and influential proponent of the group's shift toward political violence" and that he used his "outsized public profile" and his military experience as he "led a revolt against the government in an effort to stop the peaceful transfer of power."
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who handed down Biggs' sentence, ruled earlier in the hearing that
Biggs' tearing down of a fence between police and rioters qualified him for a terrorism sentencing enhancement sought by prosecutors. Destroying the fence was a "deliberate, meaningful step" that contributed to the disruption of the electoral vote count occurring in the Capitol, Kelly said.
Comment: The Gateway Pundit adds: Thanks, Joe Biden!