Former Proud Boys leader Ethan Nordean jailed for 18 years over January 6 Capitol riots
Proud Boys leader Ethan Nordean has been jailed for 18 years – the joint longest sentence given to anyone involved in the January 6 Capitol riots so far.
Nordean is the latest to be jailed after other leaders and members of the group were convicted of spearheading an attack aimed at preventing the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 presidential election.
He was described as the “undisputed leader on the ground on 6 Jan,” by prosecutor Jason McCullough, who also asked the judge to sentence him to 27 years.
Nordean was convicted of seditious conspiracy and other crimes by a jury.
In a statement to the judge, Nordean called the riots a “complete and utter tragedy” and said he had gone to the Capitol to be a leader and to keep people out of trouble.
“While it is true that I wholeheartedly regret what I did that day, what I regret more is not being a better leader,” he said.
It comes after Stewart Rhodes, the leader and founder of another far-right group, the Oathkeepers, who was also sentenced to 18 years.
Earlier on Friday, a former member of the far-right Proud Boys shouted “Trump won” as he was jailed for 10 years for his part in the January 6 Capitol riots.
Dominic Pezzola, 46, took a police officer’s riot shield and used it to smash a window, allowing rioters to make the first breach into the Capitol.
Dominic Pezzola (centre) with the police shield he took. Pic: AP
He later filmed a “celebratory video” with a cigar inside the building, prosecutors said.
Pezzola was a recent Proud Boys recruit, however, and a jury acquitted him of the most high-profile charge of seditious conspiracy.
“He was an enthusiastic foot soldier,” prosecutor Erik Kenerson said.
US District Judge Timothy Kelly noted that Pezzola, of Rochester, New York, was a newcomer to the group who did not write the kind of increasingly violent online messages that his co-defendants did leading up to the attack.
However, he was in some ways a “tip of the spear” in allowing rioters to get into the Capitol, the judge added.
“The reality is you smashed that window in and let people begin to stream into the Capitol building and threaten the lives of our lawmakers,” the judge told Pezzola.
“It’s not something that I ever dreamed I would have seen in our country.”
The defence had asked for five years for Pezzola, saying he got “caught up in the craziness” that day.
Pezzola told the judge that he wished he had never crossed into a restricted area on January 6 and he apologised to the officer whose shield he took.
“There is no place in my future for groups or politics whatsoever,” he said.
Read more:
How Proud Boys secretly planned to overthrow democracy
Capitol riot trial date set for clash with primaries
Capitol riots. Pic: AP
But later, as he left the courtroom, he raised a fist and said: “Trump won!”
Two co-defendants were sentenced on Thursday.
Joseph Biggs, an organiser from Ormond Beach, Florida, got 17 years, and Zachary Rehl, a leader of the Philadelphia chapter, got 15 years.
The highest-profile Proud Boys member, Enrique Tarrio, is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday after a month-long trial.
More than 1,100 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 600 of them have been convicted and sentenced.
Charlie Kirk has been posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump.
The USA’s highest civilian honour was received by the conservative activist’s widow, Erika, at the White House.
Mr Kirk, 31, was fatally shot on 10 September while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University.
He founded Turning Point USA and toured American university campuses, debating students about current affairs.
Erika Kirk at the White House. Pic: Reuters
Erika Kirk and Donald Trump. Pic: Reuters
Addressing those attending the ceremony in the White House rose garden, the US president said they were there to “honour and remember a fearless warrior for liberty” and a “beloved leader who galvanised the next generation”.
He said Mr Kirk’s name was being entered “forever into the eternal roster of true American heroes”.
Mr Trump described Charlie Kirk as an “American patriot of the deepest conviction, the finest quality and the highest calibre”.
He said his nation had been “robbed” of an “extraordinary champion”.
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Has Charlie Kirk become a MAGA ‘martyr’?
And Mr Trump said Mr Kirk was assassinated in the “prime of his life for boldly speaking the truth, for living his faith, and relentlessly fighting for a better and stronger America”.
The ceremony coincided with what would have been Mr Kirk’s 32nd birthday.
Mr Trump described Erika Kirk, now head of Turning Point USA, as someone who had “endured unspeakable hardship with unbelievable strength”.
Read more:
What do we know about Erika Kirk?
Charlie Kirk’s movement is growing in wake of his assassination
Charlie Kirk. File pic: AP
A 22-year-old man, Tyler Robinson, from the city of Washington in Utah has been charged with Mr Kirk’s murder. Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty.
At a memorial event held at a stadium in Arizona, Erika Kirk told an enormous crowd she forgave her husband’s killer.
“The answer to hate is not hate,” she said.
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