An individual involved with the extremist organization the Proud Boys has been sentenced to several years in prison after criminal allegations stemming from their participation in the January 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The defendant, Florida’s Zachary Johnson, was sentenced specifically to three and a half years of detention following a guilty plea admitting to a charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers.
Johnson joined other individuals involved with that extremist org on the day of the attack. “The group charged through the barricades and was among the first to breach the restricted perimeter,” the Justice Department said in a press release, describing a group evidently including Johnson. That breach took place around an hour and a half before the Capitol building itself was breached by riot participants.
Johnson, meanwhile, eventually joined violence unfolding around the Capitol’s infamous Lower West Terrace tunnel, where several well-known officers participating in the Capitol’s defense were injured and where a consistent pace of physical violence was seen.
Johnson, who repeatedly worked in coordination with fellow rioters whether these individuals were in his extremist group or the fellow participants who happened to arrive, eventually “celebrated with others while on the steps of the Lower West Terrace,” authorities added. Johnson, who continued his participation in the day’s events, then (among other actions) helped pass a sledgehammer through the crowd, though that press release recap of his case does not note whether it’s known that this potential weapon was subsequently used for any violence. A tear gas canister he helped pass along was, in contrast, used against police.
Johnson was in that area until some three hours after the Capitol building itself was breached by the crowds. Is this the kind of individual to whom Trump is intending to potentially offer a pardon if he regains the presidency? The former president/continued candidate and others in the GOP like Marjorie Taylor Greene consistently speak out on behalf of individuals facing criminal cases from that day’s events. Is passing a sledgehammer potentially for use against police what they support? All details on Johnson’s case are from the Justice Department.
