A one-time leader in the Proud Boys has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, tying the record for the longest sentence in the attack.
Ethan Nordean was ‘the undisputed leader on the ground on January 6,’ said prosecutor Jason McCullough. Prosecutors had asked the judge to sentence the Seattle-area chapter president to 27 years.
Nordean was one of several members convicted of spearheading an attack on the Capitol to try to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 presidential election.
He was convicted of seditious conspiracy and other serious charges.
Defense attorneys pushed back against the idea that Nordean was more responsible for the attack than others and denied that there was any plan to attack the Capitol on January 6.
FILE – Proud Boy member Ethan Nordean walks toward the U.S. Capitol in Washington, in support of President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
Nordean’s sentence on Friday is the third to have been handed to members of the far-right group this week.
Dominic Pezzola, who lit up a cigar for a ‘victory smoke’ after breaking into the Capitol with a riot shield, yelled ‘Trump won’ to the court after being jailed for 10 years earlier Friday.
Pezzola, known as ‘Spaz’, was convicted of a raft of charges, including assaulting or resisting a police officer, robbery of a police shield, destruction of government property and obstructing an official proceeding for his part in the January 6, 2021, riot.
‘The reality is you were the one who did it,’ US District Judge Timothy Kelly said during Friday’s hearing.
‘You were the one who smashed that window in and let people begin to stream into the Capitol building and threaten the lives of our lawmakers. It is not something I would have ever dreamed I’d see in our country. You were really, in some ways, the tip of the spear.’
Kelly had only left the room for minutes after telling Pezzola he hoped he’d turned when the disgraced 46-year-old shouted ‘Trump won’, and raised his fist in the air.
Nordean, Pezzola, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl, were also found guilty of seditious conspiracy over the attack.
The highest-profile Proud Boys member convicted after that monthslong trial, former top leader Enrique Tarrio, is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday.
The Proud Boys’ trial laid bare far-right extremists´ embrace of lies by Trump, a Republican, that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
More than 1,100 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 600 of them have been convicted and sentenced.
Six members of that anti-government group also were convicted of seditious conspiracy after a separate trial last year.
The rioters that stormed the U.S. Capitol were just 100 feet from the officer where Pence and his family were hiding.
It took 14 minutes to evacuate Pence from the Senate Chamber after the MAGA mob first broke into the building, video footage showed.
Secret Service agents eventually managed to convince the VP to leave and rushed him and his family into an office before they were taken to a second secure location.
Less than 60 seconds after Pence was taken to his hideaway, a violent crowd followed a Capitol officer up a flight of stairs – just 33 yards from the office but away from the chamber where many lawmakers still remained.
Prosecutors say the groups were intent on keeping Democrat Joe Biden out of the White House at all costs.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk