An individual connected by federal authorities to the far-right organization the Proud Boys has been sentenced to five years in prison after a series of physical assaults on police at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The defendant, Florida’s Kenneth Bonawitz, admitted to felony charges including two counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, and his consequences also include three years of supervised release to follow his stint in prison.
Bonawitz carried a knife with him on the Capitol grounds on that fateful day, authorities say. The weapon was confiscated by police at the time, but responding police departments struggling with resource strain let Bonawitz himself go. A press release on Bonawitz’s case says his “attacks injured one officer, who was also a first responder to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack at the Pentagon, so severely that the officer has now been forced to retire from the United States Capitol Police.” It doesn’t name them.
In the lead-up to his actions on the Capitol grounds, Bonawitz was evidently among those attending Trump’s outdoor rally in Washington, D.C., that day where the former president and others furthered false conspiracy theories about the then-recent presidential election in which Joe Biden was victorious. Meanwhile, that federal release on Bonawitz’s case says that one of his physical assaults against police consisted of placing an officer in a chokehold and briefly lifting the targeted individual from the ground. Bonawitz was evidently standing behind the officer at the time.
Notably, Bonawitz apparently identified himself by name and state of residence in an interview conducted on camera in Washington, D.C., that day, adding him to the list of January 6 defendants who seemingly set up openings for their own criminal cases to form.
Would Bonawitz be among those for whom Trump has at times been so antsy on the possibility of issuing presidential pardons if he retakes power? And the right-wing Republicans propping up January 6 participants — is Bonawitz included? As Trump and some Republicans lavish support on those crowds, this is who’s on the other side.
