Proud Boys leader gets 18 years, matching longest Jan. 6 punishment to date

Two more members of the Proud Boys convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol were sentenced to lengthy prison terms Friday, with one of the group’s leaders that day receiving an 18-year sentence for seditious conspiracy, the longest term for a Proud Boys member so far and equal to the longest Jan. 6 sentence yet imposed.

Another member who gained national renown for smashing a window at the Capitol, enabling the first breach of the building by rioters, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

But some of the defendants seemed unrepentant. After expressing deep remorse over his actions on Jan. 6, and receiving the 10-year term, half what prosecutors had sought, Dominic Pezzola turned to the audience as he left the courtroom Friday, raised his fist and yelled, “Trump won!”

The sentencings are the latest milestone in the Jan. 6 investigation, which has targeted leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers who led their members to the Capitol and inflamed the actions of the larger crowd of Donald Trump supporters angry with the 2020 election results.

Prosecutors have now racked up dozens of guilty pleas or trial convictions for members of the two groups, with sentences ranging from home detention to 18 years for Ethan Nordean, who was sentenced after Pezzola on Friday, and for Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, who was sentenced earlier this year. Nordean and Pezzola were convicted after a five-month trial with co-defendants Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and former Proud Boys chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio.

On Thursday, Biggs was sentenced to 17 years and Rehl received 15 years. Tarrio, who prosecutors say deserves a 33-year prison term, is set to be sentenced Tuesday.

Nordean, 33, of Auburn, Washington, was tapped to head the “boots on the ground” in D.C. after Tarrio was banned from the city because of a Jan. 4 arrest. Nordean and Biggs, a far-right online personality and associate of broadcaster Alex Jones, used bullhorns to direct about 200 men away from a rally featuring Trump.

Photos and videos show the two marching the group toward the Capitol long before Trump’s remarks at the “Stop the Steal” rally, and then imploring Proud Boys as well as the arriving crowd of Trump supporters to overrun the police and enter the Capitol after the electoral vote certification began at 1 p.m. on Jan. 6.

The prosecution asked U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly to enhance the sentences of Pezzola and Nordean on Friday by ruling that their acts to disrupt the electoral vote certification qualified as terrorism. Kelly had agreed to this request with Biggs and Rehl, and did so again with Pezzola and Nordean.

Prosecutors initially sought a 27-year term for Nordean and 20 years for Pezzola. But as with Biggs and Rehl, Kelly decided that the sentencing ranges for Nordean and Pezzola were too severe. After seeing the sentences for Biggs and Rehl, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough argued Friday that Nordean deserved at least 17 years, as a “structural equal” of Biggs.

“The truth is I did help lead a group of men back to the Capitol,” Nordean told the judge. “There is no excuse for my actions, ignoring police commands, going past barricades, entering the Capitol. Adding myself to the dangerous situation was sorely irresponsible. I would like to take the time to apologize to anyone I wronged. There is no excuse for what I did. I would also like to apologize for my lack of leadership that day.”

Kelly said that most cases with terrorism adjustments “seem to incorporate an intent to kill people or at least a means in the offense to risk serious injury or death. I don’t think – while what Mr. Nordean was convicted of was a serious crime – I don’t think he intended to kill anyone that day.”

He did not say why he gave Nordean one more year than Biggs.

The sentencing guideline ranges are optional, and most judges have gone below them in sentencing Jan. 6 defendants.

The jury convicted Nordean of seditious conspiracy but acquitted Pezzola of the same charge.

Nordean was an enthusiastic, longtime member of the Proud Boys who rose to prominence in far-right circles in 2018 after a video of him punching protesters in Portland, Oregon, circulated online.

Nordean and Biggs were at the front of the group that gathered at the Washington Monument around 10 a.m. on Jan. 6 and then marched away from the “Stop the Steal” rally toward the Capitol, evidence showed. As they neared the Capitol, “Nordean stalked the front of the line, marching back and forth as though he was the general of an army,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys McCullough and Conor Mulroe wrote in their sentencing brief.

The group was recorded overwhelming Capitol police at the Peace Circle, tearing down a black fence at the perimeter and then charging up the steps into the building. “Nordean was there to use force against the government and lead what he viewed as a second American Revolution,” Mulroe and McCullough said.

Video also captured the moments when Pezzola, 46, of Rochester, N.Y., used a police riot shield to break through glass on the Capitol’s west terrace, enabling what prosecutors have said was the first breach of the building at 2:11 p.m. About 20 minutes later, Pezzola filmed a video of himself inside the Capitol, smoking a cigar and reveling.

Pezzola had joined the Proud Boys just two months before Jan. 6 and had little involvement in the extensive messaging among the group’s leaders before the Capitol riot. He and Nordean were convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent federal officers from doing their duties and destruction of government property over $1,000.

“You really were, in some ways, the tip of the spear that allowed people to end up getting into the Capitol,” Kelly told Pezzola. But he rejected sentencing guidelines calling for a term of 17½ to 22 years, and a prosecution request for 20 years.

Though he ruled that Pezzola’s offenses counted as terrorism, and for an increase in the sentence, “I think the terrorism adjustment overstates your role in the offense,” Kelly said. “I’m not trying to minimize all the violence that did happen that day. And the violence you had a role in. But there’s violence, and then there’s violence. And I think the adjustment does overstate your conduct,” meaning Pezzola did not intend to kill anyone.

Pezzola apologized for his actions and expressed his regret to the officer whose shield he took during a mob assault on police. “I never should have crossed the barrier at the Capitol that day, the first of many errors that day,” he said. “I stand before you with a heart full of regret. I can only acknowledge how reckless my actions were at the Capitol and how much they impacted the country.”

Pezzola also told the judge, “There is no place in my future for groups and politics whatsoever,” before falsely declaring after the hearing that Trump won the 2020 election as marshals were leading him from the courtroom.

Four of the five defendants were acquitted of assaulting police, except Pezzola. He was also convicted of robbery for stealing the police shield.

Capitol Police Officer Mark Ode testified at trial that as he was trying to help another officer who was being assaulted, Pezzola and other rioters “violently and forcefully grabbed” his shield and pulled him to the ground. The officer said he was sprayed with a chemical substance, multiple people fell on top of him, and someone used his helmet strap to try to choke him. Ode testified that he struggled to breathe and thought he would not get out of the pile alive.

Pezzola was not the only one whose remorse shown during sentencing took a turn outside of court.

From the D.C. jail after receiving his 15-year term, Rehl that night called the verdict against him a “political charade.” He said he hoped it would be overturned on appeal in time for him to vote for Trump again.

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Rachel Weiner contributed to this report.