Proud Boys leader gets 18-year prison sentence, ties for longest among Capitol rioters

WASHINGTON (CN) — A leader of the Washington chapter of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Friday for his role in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

Prosecutors described Ethan Nordean as the group’s “undisputed leader on the ground.”

The 33-year-old’s sentence ties the previous longest prison term for a Jan. 6 defendant, handed to Stewart Rhodes, the founder of another extremist group, Oath Keepers. Rhodes received an 18-year sentence in May.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly said Nordean broke what had been a long-standing American tradition of a peaceful transfer of power following an election.

“If we don’t have the peaceful transfer of power, we don’t have anything,” the Donald Trump appointee said before he passed down Nordean’s sentence.

Nordean helped lead the initial charge against a police barricade at the Peace Circle, located between the Capitol building and the National Mall, then breached multiple police lines, tearing down a black barricade with co-defendant Joseph Biggs and leading rioters up the steps of the Capitol.

He then led the crowd into the building after Dominic Pezzola — one of Nordean’s co-defendants who was sentenced to 10 years Friday morning — broke a Senate wing window. Nordean was one of the first rioters to enter the building after he climbed through the broken window.

Speaking in court Friday Nordean expressed regret for his actions; he apologized for any pain he caused and for not doing more to deescalate the violence committed by Proud Boy recruits who followed him to the Capitol.

“I had to face the sobering truth that I didn’t come to Jan. 6 as an individual, I came as a leader and to keep people safe … I failed miserably at both,” Nordean said.

Nordean’s was the fourth sentence imposed upon Proud Boys leaders and member this week. Proceedings on Thursday proceedings ended with a sentence of 17 years for Biggs and 15 years for Zachary Rehl, in addition to Pezzola’s sentence earlier on Friday.

During Friday’s hearing Justice Department prosecutor Jason McCullough urged Kelly to sentence Nordean to at least 17 years, stepping back from the government’s initial recommendation of 27 years. He argued Nordean and Biggs were “functional equivalents in the nature and circumstance of this crime.”

McCullough said following the riot, Nordean was emboldened, continued to engage with the Proud Boys and made reference to being on the “brink of war,” persecuted by the government.

Defense attorney Nicholas Smith, of the firm David B. Smith, tried to draw distinction between his client and Biggs, who he said was responsible for more violence and dangerous rhetoric than Nordean.

He said his client had told another rioter he was hungover and wanted to return to his hotel before marching on the Capitol, an attempt to characterize Nordean as a less-than-enthusiastic leader compared to Biggs, who used a bullhorn to incite the crowd.

Kelly, as he had for Biggs, Rehl and Pezzola, applied a terrorism sentence enhancement to Nordean’s destruction of government property conviction, finding that by tearing down a barricade, Nordean intended to intimidate members of Congress. The enhancement did not factor into the 18-year prison sentence, in part because Nordean had not intended to kill anyone.

A jury convicted Nordean in May on six counts for conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging their duties, civil disorder, destruction of government property and a Civil War-era seditious conspiracy charge.

The Friday hearing was rescheduled from Wednesday after Judge Kelly fell ill and decided not to come to the courthouse out of an abundance of caution.

Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the extremist group, will be sentenced last; his hearing was rescheduled from Wednesday morning to the afternoon of Sept. 5.

Federal prosecutors initially sought a sentence of 27 years for Nordean, and similarly lengthy prison terms for his co-defendants: 33 years for Tarrio, 33 years for Biggs, 30 years for Rehl and 20 years for Pezzola.

Pezzola received the lightest sentence of the group so far, as the only one to be acquitted of seditious conspiracy. He had joined only the Proud Boys’ “Ministry of Self Defense,” a group chat formed after Donald Trump’s announced the Stop the Steal Rally on Jan. 6, just four days before the riot.

During Pezzola’s hearing Friday morning, he promised to change his ways, and said, “There is no place in my future for politics."

Emotional testimony followed from Pezzola’s mother, daughter and wife, who pleaded for Kelly’s mercy and assured him the defendant was a good man who would leave behind the “toxicity” that brought him to the Capitol that day.

But after Kelly made his ruling, Pezzola shouted “Trump won!” as he walked out of the courtroom.

In the 31 months since the Capitol Riot, the Justice Department has charged over 1,100 people in connection with their actions on Jan. 6. The department estimates 597 people have been sentenced and 321 people who assaulted officers remain unidentified in the ongoing investigation.

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