Recently, Joseph Biggs — who has a history of involvement with the Proud Boys, in association with which he showed up outside the Capitol on January 6 — was sentenced to 17 years in prison after conviction on criminal charges including seditious conspiracy. He was also accused of helping remove physical barriers outside the Capitol, which set the scene for the day’s subsequent violence, including attacks on police officers.
Following the pronouncement of his sentence, which drew predictable complaints from Republicans like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Biggs spoke from prison on a broadcast by Alex Jones, the far-right commentator who’s faced his own legal problems. As highlighted by Newsweek, Biggs expressed confidence in a presidential pardon from Donald Trump if the latter wins the White House in the 2024 race — and complained about the food offered in prison, characterizing it as inedible.
“You can’t eat the food here. It is not edible in any kind of way,” Biggs complained. As for the pardon question, Trump himself has already expressed an interest in issuing such pardons when discussing his potential return to the White House, and he’s repeatedly failed to make any distinction among those facing charges from that day. A critical factor here is that many of those who have been criminally charged were accused of physical violence against police!
One of the Proud Boys defendants, Dominic Pezzola, helped violently wrest a riot shield from an officer and shattered a window at the Capitol according to details that emerged, helping with the push by so many others to get inside the building. Yet, Greene has specifically pushed for pardons in the context of the Proud Boys cases. Greene, Trump, and others are directly allying themselves with groups that — even if it’s ignored! — include individuals accused or convicted of serious physical violence, which was often captured on camera. As the 2024 elections approach, when many expect Trump and incumbent President Joe Biden to face each other once again, that’s the reality.
