Kansas man William Chrestman, an admitted member of the violent mobs that descended on the Capitol in early 2021, spurred by lies tracing to Donald Trump about the then-recent presidential election, has been sentenced to over four and a half years in prison for joining January 6. The specific sentence is 55 months.
Chrestman previously pleaded guilty to two felony offenses covering his actions: obstructing an official proceeding and threatening a federal officer. Chrestman was involved with the far-right group the Proud Boys, which has repeatedly been connected to real-world incidents of violence. In Washington, D.C., on the day of the Capitol attack, Chrestman eventually joined others in the group who gathered for what became an assault on the Capitol substantially prior to the building’s own subsequent breach.
Here’s how a press release on Chrestman’s case describes some of the set-up: “At about 1:00 p.m., the crowd breached the line of barriers and surged toward the Capitol building. Chrestman and other Proud Boys he had been marching with moved forward as part of this crowd surge during this initial breach.” This was a little over an hour prior to rioters entering the Capitol building, and it roughly coincided with Trump ending his speech at the outdoor rally held in the capital that day to advance the (by then long-running) claims of systematic election fraud.
Chrestman, meanwhile, eventually entered the Capitol building himself — though not before evident threats towards police outside.
Per that same federal release, he spoke against officers trying in the earlier parts of the afternoon to hold defensive lines. “Hey, if you shoot, I’ll f— take your a— out,” he shouted at a group of officers who had what are termed pepperball rounds to use against individuals in the crowd. As in other cases, authorities also singled out how Chrestman helped facilitate further incursion and, potentially, attacks by others joining the riot. He used a wooden ax handle to which a flag had earlier been attached to force a metal overhead door inside the Capitol to stay open. In apparent texts, he later seemed to misrepresent the building where this chaos unfolded, calling it the “State Building.”
