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On Friday, two members of the Proud Boys militia group learned they would be facing long prison sentences for their parts in the January 6 riots at the Capitol.
Proud Boy Ethan Nordean tied Oath Keeper Stewart Rhodes for the longest sentences at 18 years apiece. They were both convicted for organizing and leading a group of about 200 to breach the Capitol building.
Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0.
They weren’t the only ones, however — about 600 defendants have received sentences in connection with storming the Capitol. While Nordean and Rhodes received the weightiest sentences, others ranged from 10 to 17 years. And there’s more to come, since next week Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio will learn his fate.
However, Nordean sensed that he was going to the Big House just a few short weeks after the January 6 riots. And he blamed Donald Trump, writing this message on Telegram on January 20, 2021:
Alright I’m gunna say it. F*** TRUMP! F*** him more than Biden. I’ve followed this guy for 4 years and given everything and lost it all. Yes he woke us up, but he led us to believe some great justice was upon us … and it never happened, now I’ve got some of my good friends and myself facing jail time cuz we followed this guys lead and never questioned it. We are now and always have been on our own. So glad he was able to pardon a bunch of degenerates as his last move and s*** on us on the way out. F*** you trump you left us on [t]he battlefield bloody and alone.
Before his sentencing Nordean addressed the court:
There is no excuse for what I did.
No matter how we all try to individually slice Jan. 6 we must conclude it was a complete and utter tragedy. It is my humble opinion that there is no rally or political protest that should ever hold value over human life.
The court still sentenced him to 18 years.
Meanwhile, co-defendant Dominic Pezzola, another member of the Proud Boys, sobbed and begged for mercy, yet expressed defiance as he received his sentence of ten years. The court had acquitted him of seditious conspiracy, but convicted him of assaulting, resisting or impeding a police officer, robbery of government property and destruction of government property.
Pezzola inadvertently provided some of the evidence which led to his conviction. After leading a breach into the Capitol building, he videoed his actions in the building, commenting, Knew we could take this motherf—– over if we just tried hard enough.
HAPPENING NOW: Proud Boy Dominic PEZZOLA, who committed one of the most memorable acts on Jan. 6 when he smashed a Senate window with a stolen police riot shield — and then lit up a victory cigar in the Capitol — is in the courtroom and prepared to face sentencing. pic.twitter.com/oL7akLJxcp
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 1, 2023
But before receiving his sentence Pezzola seemed contrite, telling U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly:
Your honor, I stand before you as a changed and humbled man. But, nonetheless as a man who has always taken responsibility for his actions … I have never denied what I did on J6.
He also told the judge that his participation in the January 6 riot was “the worst, most regrettable decision in my life.”
But that was in the courtroom. As he was being led away, Pezzola raised his fist and shouted, “Trump won!”
While being led out of the courtroom post-sentencing Pezzola turned, raised one fist and shouted "TRUMP WON!" https://t.co/58m7zzMBoS
— Daniel Barnes (@dnlbrns) September 1, 2023
So much for contrition.
Many on the political right think so. Like Andy Ngo, the independent reporter who has documented Antifa violence in Portland. He noted in a thread on X:
In response to Proud Boys members sentenced to 17 & 15 years in prison federally for Jan. 6 riot-related crimes, some have asked me what the longest sentence was for a leftist rioter who committed federal crimes in Portland in 2020.
BLM-Antifa hero Malik Muhammed, of Indianapolis, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for using explosives to try to commit attempted mass murder in Portland. When his local bail was set at $2.1m, a Portland leftist group paid it to get him out.
Ngo also cites Antifa violence in Washington DC on the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration, for which many had their cases dropped:
At the inauguration of Donald Trump in January 2017, hundreds of #Antifa militants in black bloc launched a coordinated attack on the streets of downtown Washington, D.C. in an uprising against the new government.
Two group trials failed to get convictions and the remaining 120+ militant suspects had their cases dropped. The riot suspects were supported by free lodging, donations and large, well-funded networks of legal aid. The city of Washington, D.C. later paid $1.6m to settle lawsuits by riot suspects who were arrested.
https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1697615918237446333?s=20
There does seem to be a double standard here. But every court is different, as is every jurisdiction. Nor should we engage in “whataboutism,” the tu quoque fallacy of excusing bad behavior by pointing out other bad behavior. Whatever happened to conservatives who smugly declare, “You do the crime, you do the time”?
On the other hand, are these defendants likely to riot again on behalf of Donald Trump? Even if they receive reduced time for good behavior, Trump may not be president when they are released. Would they present a future threat to society? I’m willing to offer grace here and say probably not. They acted more like cult members than hardened criminals, and time in the federal pen will likely snap them back to reality.
Defense attorney Norman Pattis, who represented one of the Proud Boys leaders, expressed his disappointment with the sentencing. Then he asked rhetorically, Where’s Donald Trump in all this?
Where indeed? Has Trump made any comment on social media? On X, or on his Truth Social site? I can’t find any reports that Donald Trump expressed indignation at his loyal followers getting these onerous sentences. The man who won’t shut up — even in the face of his own impending trials — seems to be strangely silent.
Pedro Gonzalez, politics editor for Chronicles, tweeted this after the sentencing:
Hearing Jan. 6 people realize Trump and his cronies used them and abandoned them cuts deep. Yes, the system is unfair to them. But they are rightly angry at Trump for leading them into disaster. While Trump golfs and Don Jr. runs his dumb little podcast, these people go to prison, separated from their families, their children. This is the real, hard end point of MAGA: ending up in a jail cell while Trump and his goons sell shirts with his mugshot on it, saying Trump is all that’s standing between you and the “regime.”
He added:
You aren’t fighting “the regime” by supporting Trump and his enablers. You’re helping the grifters who abandoned these people to the worst outcomes imaginable.
But Trump did vaguely promise that he would pardon “a large portion” of the January 6 rioters when he becomes president again. He told supporters at a New Hampshire town hall in May:
I am inclined to pardon many of them. I can’t say for every single one, because a couple of them, probably they got out of control.
If I were one of the Proud Boys sitting in a federal prison, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Featured image: Anthony Crider/flickr/CC BY 2.0. Cropped.
Kevin says: The moral of the story is … the 280 pound Malignant Tumor (MT) only has one and only one priority … himself. Is the MT helping to pay for all the attorneys and whack jobs who created the insane theory that VP Pence could overturn VERIFIED (yes, even in AZ, GA, MI, PA where republicans were mostly in charge of the elections divisions, state legislatures and the governor’s seat) results of States election results? WTF? Just to keep the VERIFIED Liar-in-Chief in power? All of these people put their reputations and faith in the MT and how did he show them an iota of appreciation, support and loyalty? He didn’t … all of these people are on their own to fend for themselves while the MT is raking in millions of $$$ (and his cult supporters are racking up more and more debt) for this disloyal, traitorous, vile, self-absorbed, snake. Many of these people lost their jobs and emptied their bank accounts on legal fees and for what? So the Orange Turd can continue to fly around the country on their dime (not his) screaming at the top of his lungs, “the election was stolen!”
Here’s what I love most about this story … he is marching over every other republican with the wind in his sails to the nomination. The MT’s only defense is delay, delay, delay. Well, his winning tactic of delay is coming to an end. He’s terrified of his track record in court … he’s lost about 98% of his cases out of dozens, hundreds, who knows how many cases.
About the only hope sane, patriotic, conservative (versus the rabid MAGA) republicans have is the MT will choke on his KFC in bed tonight.
Taylor says: The Proud Boys battling Antifa/BLM types on the streets reminds me of the Nazis (Brown shirts) and Communists battling on the streets of Berlin in the last days of Weimar Republic/pre-Hitler takeover in Berlin in January, 1933. May they both lose!
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