Ex-Proud Boys leader Zachary Rehl sentenced to 15 years in prison for spearheading Jan. 6 attack

A former leader of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group was sentenced on Thursday to 15 years in prison for spearheading an attack on the U.S. Capitol to try to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 presidential election.

Zachary Rehl was seen on video spraying a chemical irritant at law enforcement officers outside the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, but he repeatedly lied about that assault while he testified at his trial, federal prosecutors said.

Prosecutors had recommended a 30-year prison sentence for Rehl, who helped lead dozens of Proud Boys members and associates in marching to the Capitol on Jan. 6. Rehl and other Proud Boys joined the mob that broke through police lines and forced lawmakers to flee, disrupting the joint session of Congress for certifying the electoral victory by Biden, a Democrat.

The judge who sentenced Rehlhad earliersentenced former Proud Boys member Joseph Biggsto 17 years in prison on Thursday.Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of at least 27 years for the organizer ofthe far-right extremist group.

"I know that I messed up that day,"Biggs told District Judge Timothy Kelly just before being sentenced, "but I'm not a terrorist."

Kelly will separately sentence three other Proud Boys who were convicted by a jury in May after a four-month trial in Washington, D.C., that laid bare far-right extremists' embrace of lies by Trump, a Republican, that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Enrique Tarrio, a Miami resident who was the Proud Boys' national chairman and top leader, is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday. His sentencing was moved from Wednesday to next week becauseKelly was sick.

Tarrio wasn't in Washington on Jan. 6. He had been arrested two days before the Capitol riot on charges that he defaced a Black Lives Matter banner during an earlier rally in the nation's capital, and he complied with a judge's order to leave the city after his arrest.

He picked Biggs and Proud Boys chapter president Ethan Nordean to be the group's leaders on the ground in his absence, prosecutors said.

Rehl, Biggs, Tarrio and Nordean were convicted of charges including seditious conspiracy, a rarely brought Civil War-era offence. A fifth Proud Boys member, Dominic Pezzola, was acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted of other serious charges.

Prosecutors also recommended prison sentences of 33 years for Tarrio and Biggs, 27 years for Nordean and 20 years for Pezzola.

Nordean and Pezzola are scheduled to be sentenced on Friday.

Tarrio, Nordean, Biggs and Rehl were also convicted of obstructing Congress's certification of Biden's electoral victory and obstructing law enforcement.

The U.S. Justice Department hadn't tried a seditious conspiracy case in a decade before a jury convicted another extremist group leader, Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers. Unlike Biggs, Rhodes was defiant, characterizing himself as a political dissident, as he was sentenced earlier this year to 18 years in prison.

Leader cheered on members

The backbone of the government's case against the Proud Boys consisted of hundreds of messages exchanged before, during and after theJan. 6 attackthat show the far-right extremist group peddling Trump's false claims of a stolen election and trading fears over what would happen when Biden took office.

"Make no mistake ... we did this," Tarrio wrote to other group leaders. Tarrio also posted encouraging messages on social media during the riot, expressing pride for what he saw unfold at the Capitol and urging his followers to stay there.

Rehl led at least three other men into the Capitol and into a senator's office, where he smoked and posed for pictures while flashing the Proud Boys' hand gesture.

"Rehl led an army to attempt to stop the certification proceeding, was proud that they got as close as they did, and his only regret in the immediate aftermath was that they did not go further," prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Later that day, Rehl expressed pride for his role in the attack. "Seems like our raid of the capital set off a chain reaction of events throughout the country," he wrote in a message to his mother.

The assault on the Capitol overwhelmed police, forced lawmakers to flee the House and Senate floors, and disrupted the joint session of Congress for certifying Biden's victory.

More than 1,100 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the attack. More than 600 of them have been sentenced, with over half receiving terms of imprisonment.

Trump trial date set

The Justice Department, through special counsel Jack Smith, has also recently charged Trump with conspiring to subvert American democracy, accusing the Republican of plotting in the days before the attack to overturn the results of the election that he lost.

Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives after the Capitol attack on grounds of incitement of insurrection. Fifty-seven senators, including seven Republicans, voted for impeachment, but that was 10 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for a Senate conviction.

Trump, who is the early front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, insists he did nothing wrong. His trial in that case, one of four criminal indictments he faces, is set to begin on March 4, 2024.

The origins of the Proud Boys stretch back about a decade, with Canadian Gavin McInnes a founder.

Tarrio, a Miami resident, led the neo-fascist group known for street fights with left-wing activists when Trump infamously told the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by"during his first 2020 presidential debate with Biden.