Joseph Biggs is considered to have been the instigator of the group during the storming and is sentenced to the harsher punishment. Of all the more than 600 convicted so far after the storming, only one person, Proud Boys co-founder Stewart Rhodes, received a harsher sentence – 18 years in prison.
– I know I touched it that day, but I’m not a terrorist, Biggs told the court before the sentence was announced.
Later in the day, Zachary Rehl was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was formerly the president of the Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia, and according to the court he was also the driving force behind the storming.
The two were part of a group of five defendants who were convicted of sedition in May this year.
Over 1,100 defendants
The other three will receive their sentences in the coming week. Among them is the group’s former leader Enrique Tarrio, who was not in Washington DC that fateful day, but is believed to have masterminded the group’s rampage.
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.