Proud Boys members together with Zachary Rehl, left, Ethan Nordean, middle, and Joseph Biggs, stroll towards the U.S. Capitol in Washington, in assist of President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021.

Carolyn Kaster/AP

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Carolyn Kaster/AP

Proud Boys members together with Zachary Rehl, left, Ethan Nordean, middle, and Joseph Biggs, stroll towards the U.S. Capitol in Washington, in assist of President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021.

Carolyn Kaster/AP

Joseph Biggs, a former navy service member who helped lead efforts by the Proud Boys to take over the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced to 17 years in jail for seditious conspiracy and different crimes dedicated throughout the riot greater than two years in the past.

Judge Timothy J. Kelly additionally sentenced Biggs to a few years of supervised launch and a ban on any interactions with organizations that advocate violence in opposition to the federal government.

The sentence is much under the 33 yr sentence sought by prosecutors.

Back in May, he was convicted alongside former Proud Boys nationwide chairman Enrique Tarrio and different fellow Proud Boys Ethan Nordean and Zachary Rehl. A fourth defendant, Dominic Pezzola, was acquitted of seditious conspiracy however discovered responsible of assaulting, resisting or impeding sure officers and theft involving authorities property.

Prosecutors additionally wished to use a “terrorism enhancement,” which ends up in longer jail phrases, given his crimes.

Judge Kelly selected to use that enhancement to considered one of Biggs’ fees concerning his function within the destruction of a fence surrounding the U.S. Capitol constructing which, as soon as gone, not saved the mob again from legislation enforcement defending the constructing.

The most extreme sentence doled out to Jan. 6 rioters thus far is eighteen years given to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes. He was equally convicted of seditious conspiracy in a separate case in May.

Before being sentenced, Biggs begged for forgiveness and leniency. He downplayed his function within the Jan. 6 riots and mentioned that day was set to be the final occasion he deliberate to do with the Proud Boys as he had plans to step again from the group.

“I was seduced by the crowd,” Biggs mentioned of the mob in entrance of the U.S. Capitol. “Curiosity got the better of me and I will regret that for the rest of my life.”

Biggs cried as he begged Kelly to permit him a possibility to be current for his younger daughter who he mentioned was molested by a member of the family and is now within the care of his mom.

“I am not a terrorist,” he mentioned. “I know I have to be punished, but at least give me the opportunity to take my daughter to school one day.”

As the primary of the 5 co-defendants within the Proud Boys’ Jan. 6 case to be sentenced, Biggs’ punishment signifies a probability of equally aggressive penalties for the opposite members he was convicted with.

The sentencing hearings for Tarrio and Nordean, initially scheduled for Wednesday, have been delayed after Kelly fell ailing.

Nordean’s listening to is rescheduled for Friday and Tarrio’s for Tuesday, Sept. 5.