By Steve Neavling
Two former Proud Boy leaders on Thursday received some of the longest sentences handed down as a result of the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Joseph Briggs, a Florida leader of the far-right group, was sentenced to 17 years in prison and three years of supervised release for conspiring to derail the peaceful transfer of power.
His co-defendant, Zachary Real, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and three years of supervised release.
The only Jan. 6 defendant to receive a stiffer sentence was Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was ordered to spend 18 years in prison.
“Our Constitution and laws give you so many important rights that Americans have fought and died for and that you yourself put on a uniform to defend,” District Judge Timothy Kelly said in handing down the sentence to Biggs, according to CNN. “People around the world would give anything for these rights.”
But the insurrection, Kelly said, “broke our tradition of the peaceful transferring of power” in the U.S.
“The nature of the constitutional moment we were in that day is something that is so sensitive that it deserves a significant sentence,” he added.
Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Biggs to 33 years in prison, saying he “intentionally positioned themselves at the vanguard of political violence in this country” for years and on January 6, 2021 sought to “change the course of American history.”
