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Former Proud Boys Leader Joe Biggs Sentenced To 17 Yrs In Prison For Jan. 6 Involvement – One America News Network

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WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 12: Members of the Proud Boys march towards Freedom Plaza during a protest on December 12, 2020 in Washington, DC. Thousands of protesters who refuse to accept that President-elect Joe Biden won the election are rallying ahead of the electoral college vote to make Trump's 306-to-232 loss official. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
Members of the Proud Boys march towards Freedom Plaza during a protest on December 12, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

OAN’s James Meyers
12:10 PM – Thursday, August 31, 2023

A former Proud Boys leader who was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in the January 6th protest was sentenced to 17 years in prison on Thursday. 

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Joseph Biggs, an Army veteran, received one of the longest sentences in all of the demonstration cases.

The January 6th committee was originally seeking 33 years for Biggs.

In the past, Biggs was injured in combat in Iraq during his years of service and he had later served as a correspondent on Alex Jones’ InfoWars website. 

The committee argued that he was a “vocal leader and influential proponent of the group’s shift toward political violence” and used his “outsized public profile” and his military experience as he “led a revolt against the government in an effort to stop the peaceful transfer of power.”

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who handed down Biggs’ sentence, argued that his alleged tearing down of a fence that stood between police and rioters put him in the category of a terrorism sentencing enhancement sought by the January 6th committee. 

The sentencing dates back to May when Biggs was convicted of seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to use force, intimidation or threats to prevent officers of the U.S. from discharging their duties, interference with law enforcement during civil disorder and destruction of government property.

The Army veteran went on trial along with five other Proud Boy members, including Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola.

The other members will be sentenced in the coming days with Rehl on Thursday, Nordean and Pezzola on Friday, and Tarrio on Tuesday. 

Before he received his sentence, Biggs apologized for his role in the January 6th protest.

“I apologize for my rhetoric,” Biggs said, he used it as a way to cope with finding out his daughter was molested by a member of his family. “I’m so sorry, I’m not a terrorist, I don’t have hate in my heart.”

“I’m done with it. I’m sick and tired of left versus right,” Biggs said.

However, Biggs’ lawyer, Norm Pattis, said crimes had been committed by his client but that they were “overstated.”

“To treat these men as terrorists would be, in my view, the functional equivalent as the destruction of Waco,” Pattis said. 

Judge Kelly ended the sentencing saying January 6th ruined the transfer of power from one President to another. 

“What happened on January 6th harmed an important American custom that helps support the rule of law and the constitution,” he said. “That day broke our tradition of peacefully transferring power which is among the most precious things that we had as Americans. Notice I said had. We don’t have it anymore.”

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Judge Chutkan Compares Jan. 6 To 9/11 And Boston Bombing Terrorist Attacks – One America News Network

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(L) Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images) / (R) Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts via AP

OAN’s Brooke Mallory
4:20 PM – Tuesday, August 29, 2023

On Monday, U.S. Judge Tanya S. Chutkan questioned the necessity of a protracted wait before former President Donald Trump’s trial in Washington, D.C., and she compared the January 6th Capitol breach to the devastating 9/11 terrorist attacks and the Boston Marathon bombing.

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Political commentator Julie Kelly, who has reported on the court cases of those accused of taking part in the U.S. Capitol protest, reported on Chutkan’s comments in her Substack article, “Declassified with Julie Kelly.”

Through legal challenges and allegations of election fraud that Special Counsel Jack Smith has connected to the protest on January 6th, Trump is being accused in Washington, D.C., of illegally plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

According to reports, Judge Chutkan, who was born in Kingston, Jamaica, made her comments while choosing March 4th, 2024, as the trial date.

The date falls one day before Super Tuesday, the crucial day of the 2024 presidential election, in which Trump is the front-runner for the Republican Party.

Chutkan remarked, according to the session transcript, that: “In rejecting the request of Trump’s attorneys for a later trial date that would push the case past the 2024 election and allow them more time to review millions of documents of possible evidence.”

“The trial will start three years, one month, and 27 days after the events of January 6, 2021. The trial involving the Boston Marathon bombing began less than two years after the events. The trial involving Zacarias Moussaoui for his role in the September 11 attacks was set to begin one year after the attacks, but due to continuances, appeals, and voluminous discovery, it began roughly four years later,” Chutkan said.

Chutkan has come under fire for having a “Democrat-driven political agenda.”

She was first selected by former President Barack Obama and she also contributed to his presidential campaign. Additionally, over the years, Chutkan has consistently spoken in favor of imprisoning Trump.

“I see the footage of the flags and the signs that people were carrying and the hats they were wearing and the garb, and the people who mobbed that Capitol were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man — not to the Constitution … It’s a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day,” Chutkan said to a January 6th defendant in October of last year. 

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