Joseph Biggs, a leader and top propagandist of the far-right Proud Boys street gang, was sentenced to 17 years in prison Thursday for his role in the planning and execution of the violent plot to overturn the 2020 election in favor of Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021.
Biggs, an Army veteran and former correspondent for Alex Jones’ Infowars, is one of five Proud Boys leaders convicted in May in a seditious conspiracy case, which served as one of the Justice Department’s highest-profile indictments against any Capitol rioter.
His Proud Boy co-defendants — Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola — are all set to be sentenced over the next week in Washington. Rehl’s sentencing hearing is next — expected for Thursday afternoon.
All of them except Pezzola were found guilty in May of seditious conspiracy, a rare and serious charge historically brought against terrorists acting on American soil. Each was found guilty on a range of other federal charges, including obstructing Congress, destruction of government property and assaulting law enforcement.
Prosecutors sought 33 years in prison for Biggs, recommending 15 years more than the longest sentence handed down in any Jan. 6 case thus far. Oath Keepers leader (and Proud Boys ally) Stewart Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in May.
The Justice Department painted Biggs as a tactical planner of the Proud Boys’ movements in the months leading up to Jan. 6 as well as on the day.
On Nov. 10, 2020, shortly after news networks called the election for Joe Biden, Biggs posted a blog post on his website, The Biggs Report, in which he called directly for civil war.
“Buy ammo, clean your guns, get storable food and water,” he wrote in the now-deleted post. “Be prepared! Things are about to get bad before they get better.”
On Jan. 6, Biggs and Rehl carried walkie-talkies as they moved with a group of hundreds of rioters — many of them Proud Boys — toward the Capitol, barking orders to other members as they worked to breach the building.
“January 6 will be a day in infamy,” Biggs said in a video of himself he recorded outside the Capitol. Later, he took a selfie inside the Senate gallery, which he breached alongside other rioters, case exhibits show.
The sentences handed down to Biggs and Rehl set District Court Judge Tim Kelly’s tone for the rest of the Proud Boys’ sentences — especially for Tarrio, the gang’s chairman, who wasn’t present at the Capitol but who played an outsize role in the seditious plot to overturn the election. Tarrio was initially set to be sentenced on Wednesday, but his hearing was delayed to Sept. 5 after Kelly came down with an unrelated illness.