By: Deirdre Smith '24
Former Proud Boys leader, Joseph Biggs, was recently sentenced to 17 years in prison on August 31 for the January 6 attack on the Capitol in 2021. Biggs, along with four other proud boy members were convicted of seditious conspiracy. Bigg’s sentencing is the second longest sentence given in capitol riot cases, as it is a little more than half of the government's request for 33 years. After serving in the US Army and suffering a head injury while stationed in Iraq, Biggs, 39, became affiliated with the website Infowars, a far-right fake news website founded in 1999.
Subsequent to his sentencing, Biggs made a prison phone call to Infowars, hosted by Alex Jones, complaining about the food and asking for viewers to donate money for his family.
“I apologize for my rhetoric,” Biggs said, including that he used the attack as a way to deal with what was going on with his family and other personal issues. “I’m so sorry. ... I’m not a terrorist. I don’t have hate in my heart.”
Biggs is one of four other Proud Boys found guilty at a trial earlier this year for using violence in an attempt to keep Donald Trump in power along with other related crimes. Prosecutors claim Biggs served as an instigator and leader during the attack, and that he was a vocal leader and influential proponent of the group's shift toward political violence. Still, defendants continue to vocalize their support for Trump, as Biggs is confident in Trump's reelection and is sure that he will help them.
“I know he’ll pardon me. I believe that with all my heart,” Biggs told Jones.
Trump has yet to say whether he will pardon his supporters, but he has mentioned giving a large portion to the rioters.
Despite the lack of response from Trump, supporters continue to believe in him and during proud boy member Dominic Pezola’s sentence hearing, he said that although he is a changed and humbled man, and that he has never denied what he did on Jan. 6. As the judge left the courtroom, he shouted his support for Trump.
“I think that the sentences were fair considering how much damage and violence happened that day,” NHS senior Rae Yeomens said.
Formed in 2016, the Proud Boys have become the main focus while investigating the January 6 attack, and the sentences given by Kelly started a sequence of Proud Boy hearings in the first week of September. Biggs’ co-defendants, Pezola, Zachary Rehl, Ethan Nordean, and Henry “Enrique” Tarrio were all given sentences for their actions at the Capitol.
“I think that the sentences weren’t fair, I think that they should have at least gotten 25+ because they went into a government property, hurt people, and brought a firearm into the capitol. That alone should be enough to be put away for life,” NHS senior Emma Ehrens said.
Rehl and Nordean received 15 years, and although Pezola was found not guilty of seditious conspiracy, he was charged 10 years for related crimes. Tarrio was given the longest sentence yet, of 22 years in Federal prison.
“I had the choice multiple times to calm things out and I didn’t. I persisted when I should have calmed,” Tarrio said.
As more arrests began to take place after January 6, Tarrio and other group members started to influence their communities to get more involved in right-leaning politics such as running for local republican positions and organizations or protesting school boards.
“That day broke our tradition of peaceful transfer of power, one of the most precious things we had as Americans,” Judge Timothy J. Kelly said, “We don’t have it anymore.”
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