A Florida defendant identified by federal authorities as involved with the far-right group the Proud Boys has been sentenced to five years in prison after criminal charges for his participation in the D.C. violence of January 6, 2021. The defendant is named Anthony Sargent, and his sentence is an even 60 months.
Sargent previously pleaded guilty to criminal charges as steep as civil disorder. He was alleged by the federal government to have perpetrated physical violence at the Capitol that directly threatened officers, at one point moving in to forcibly stop one officer from detaining a fellow member of the riot crowd believed to have assaulted an officer. A federal press release covering Sargent’s case also accuses him of repeatedly hurling a “heavy rock-like object” at a set of doors with embedded glass panes leading into the Capitol, behind which officers then stood. The release also cites a history of incendiary rhetoric from Sargent supportive of physical violence.
“Sargent’s violence was not spontaneous—as a member of the Proud Boys, he vocalized his support for a riot and civil war on the group’s messaging platform in the days leading up to January 6,” the government said.
Other members of Sargent’s organization were infamously charged with seditious conspiracy in relation to their actions around January 6, putting to rest the right-wing claim that there’s no legitimate foundation for characterizing the day’s events as an insurrection. Individuals involved with the similar group the Oath Keepers were charged with the same offense, and high-ranking figures from both groups are now serving lengthy sentences. Enrique Tarrio from the Proud Boys was sentenced to 22 years.
Are these the people who Trump is so interested in potentially pardoning if he regains the presidency? Allegations of physical violence, often backed up by copious documentation, are not unique to Sargent’s case or any other case, instead showing up across what’s evidently hundreds of sets of charges by now. In Trump’s criminal case related to his post-2020 election ambitions of holding on to power, prosecutors have indicated intentions to use comments he made during a debate in 2020 telling members of the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.”
