Fact: The Storming of the US Congress
On January 6, 2021, the members of the United States Congress gathered in the Capitol to count the electoral votes of the presidential election and formally appoint Democrat Joe Biden as the winner and next president.
At the same time, tens of thousands of supporters of Donald Trump had gathered in the capital Washington DC for a political mass meeting on the theme “Save America”. At the meeting, Trump repeated his false claims of systematic voter fraud and claimed he was the real winner. He urged his supporters to go to the Congress.
“If you don’t get the hell out of you, you won’t have a country anymore,” said the then-president.
Parts of the crowd did as he said. The protests turned violent when hundreds of people stormed the congress building and clashed with police. Some made it as far as Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, as well as into one of the chambers. Parts of the building were vandalized.
Five people, including a policeman, lost their lives in connection with the attack.
Ethan Nordean was “the undisputed ringleader on Jan. 6,” prosecutor Jason McCullough argued in the case, calling for a 27-year prison sentence for Nordean.
But with the 18-year prison sentence, Ethan Nordean becomes one of two people to receive the longest sentence so far of those charged in the congressional attack.
Of the hundreds who have so far been sentenced after the storming, Proud Boy co-founder Stewart Rhodes has also been sentenced to 18 years in prison.
On Thursday, Joseph Biggs, who is considered to have been the instigator of the group, was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
The convicts are accused of trying to stop congressional approval of then-president-elect Joe Biden.
Over 1,100 people have been charged with crimes during the storming, more than 600 of whom have been convicted so far.
Formed in 2016, Proud Boys describe themselves as Western chauvinists who romanticize traditional, male-dominated Western culture, which some see as a cover for deeper racism.