Two members of the Proud Boys receive lengthy jail sentences after their involvement in the 2021 storming of the Capitol

Two members of the right-wing group Proud Boys, Ethan Nordean and Dominic Pezzola, received 18 and 10 years in prison respectively for their involvement in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Nordean was the leader of the group in Seattle, while Pezzola was accused of breaking a Capitol window with a police shield he stole from an agent.

The two members of ‘Proud Boys’ join others who had already been sentenced for the same act, highlighting the leader, Enrique Tarrio, of Cuban origin, who was found guilty of sedition in May after a four-month trial. Likewise, the sentence of chief Joseph Biggs to 17 years in prison, and Zachary Rehl, to 15 years, was announced this Thursday.

Nordean’s sentence is the highest ever for a defendant in the attack, matching the 18-year sentence the founder of the other right-wing group ‘Oath Keepers’, Stewart Rhodes, received in May, also for conspiracy.

Pezzola’s actions and the police shield were captured by the cameras with the transparent police shield that he stole from an agent, and that he used to access the building, while the electoral victory of Democrat Joe Biden was certified.

The attack began at 10:00 am, when Biggs, Rehl and other protesters persuaded about 200 people to go from the Ellipse, the park located south of the White House, to the Capitol, jumping several security barriers.

Pezzola’s actions “demonstrated beyond any doubt that he intended to influence or affect government conduct through intimidation or coercion, or to retaliate against government conduct,” the Prosecutor’s Office said when recommending that he be sentenced to 20 years.

During the process, prosecutors showed messages and videos posted by the defendants themselves and other members of the group, inciting violence and a revolution against the change in the presidency.

Some 10,000 people participated in the attack – most of them supporters of Trump – and about 800 entered the building. Finally, it resulted in five deaths and around 140 injured agents.

With information from the EFE agency