Crime & Justice

Proud Boys ringleader Joe Biggs sentenced to 17 years for Capitol riots

Washington, Aug 31 (EFE).- One of the ringleaders of the far-right group Proud Boys, Joseph Biggs, was sentenced Thursday to 17 years in prison for conspiracy to try to keep former United States president Donald Trump in power.

Biggs and three other members of the Proud Boys, including their leader, Enrique Tarrio, were found guilty in May of conspiring to commit sedition for the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on Capitol Hill, which took place while Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory was being certified.

Ethan Nordean and Zachary Rehl were also found guilty. Nordean’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Friday, while Tarrio’s is slated for Tuesday.

The prosecution had called for 33 years in prison against Biggs.

The sentence handed down Thursday is similar to the 18-years given in May against the founder of the ultra-right-wing group Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, who was also found guilty of conspiracy to keep Trump in the White House.

That sentence remains the longest for those charged for the Jan. 6 assault, when about 10,000 people – mostly Trump supporters – marched to the Capitol, with about 800 storming the building.

Five people were killed and about 140 officers were injured.

Trump has also been indicted in Washington DC for attempts to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election. It is one of four criminal cases against him.

In Georgia he faces 13 charges for the same alleged crime, in that case at the state level, while in New York he faces another trial for so-called hush money payments he made during the 2016 campaign to porn actress Stormy Daniels for an “affair” they had had in the past.

In Florida, he faces trial for keeping classified papers he took from the White House when he left power.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all of the criminal charges he faces. EFE

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