Former Proud Boy from Aurora gets 37 months in prison for attacking police with flagpole at Jan. 6 Capitol riot
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A former member of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group has been sentenced to more than 3 years in prison, after the Aurora man pleaded guilty to attacking police officers with a flagpole during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
James Robert Elliot, who also goes by the name "Jim Bob," was arrested in December 2021 in Batavia, and originally charged with six federal counts – including civil disorder, assaulting federal officers with a dangerous weapon, and entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, among other charges.
He pleaded guilty last November to one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers. A federal judge on Thursday sentenced him to 37 months in prison and 24 months of supervised release and ordered him to pay $2,000 in restitution to the Architect of the Capitol.
In recommending a sentence of 41 months in prison for Elliott, federal prosecutors had said he "seemed to view himself as the star of a war movie" during the riot at the Capitol.
"Elliott did not just instigate – he joined the battle himself," they wrote in their sentencing memo.
Prosecutors said he urged others in the crowd to cross over barricades outside the Capitol, leading chants of "Whose House? Our house!" before he swung a flagpole at officers, and then thrust it into a police line, making contact with an officer, while repeatedly mimicking a war cry from the movie "300," yelling, "Patriots, what is our occupation? AAH-OOH, AAH-OOH, AAH-OOH."
Prosecutors said Elliot later bragged about his role in the riot, sending a text message stating, "We took the f***ing capital lol," and "I bonked two cops…. Never thought I'd say that."
Elliott also sent texts claiming he was promoted to a high rank among the Proud Boys, writing, "PB is calling me lord Jimbob and s***, and I'm getting nominated for a 4th degree."
However, in seeking leniency for Elliott, defense attorney James Welsh sought to downplay both Elliott's association with the Proud Boys and his actions during the breach of the Capitol.
"He originally joined the Proud Boys to find like-minded people he could converse with. At no time did he assume any leadership position with any knowledge of leadership's intent on January 6, 2021. Mr. Elliott offered to cooperate with the Government but had no information helpful to the Government so now they want to use his Proud Boy affiliation against him," Welsh wrote.
Despite Elliott's text message bragging the rioters "took the f***ing capital," Welsh claimed Elliott was only in Washington on Jan. 6 to see then-President Donald Trump speak.
"He was not there to overthrow the government nor dispute or disrupt any official proceedings," Welsh wrote.
Welsh also sought to downplay pictures showing Elliott dressed in body armor and a ballistic helmet during the riot, claiming his client was wearing his "typical rally gear" because he was worried that members of Antifa would attack him while he was in D.C.
"At previous lawful rallies, Antifa had thrown rocks and other foreign objects at Mr. Elliott," Welsh wrote.
Some conspiracy theorists falsely blamed antifa for the January 6 Capitol riots.
In March, one-time Proud Boys president Enrique Tarrio and three subordinates were convicted of numerous felonies including seditious conspiracy for their roles in the Capitol attack.
A federal jury in Washington, D.C. found Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, and Joseph Biggs guilty of conspiring to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden and using force and prior planning to hinder the 2020 presidential election certification.
The jury initially did not find a verdict for the fifth defendant, Dominic Pezzola, on the most serious charge, seditious conspiracy, and they were sent back to deliberate by Judge Timothy Kelly. After several hours, they found him not guilty of seditious conspiracy but remained hung on whether he was part of the conspiracy to obstruct. They sent a note to the judge that after lengthy discussions, all jurors firmly agree that further discussions" will not yield agreement and they were dismissed.
All five were found guilty of several other felonies, including obstructing an official proceeding; obstructing Congress; conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging duties; obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, and aiding and abetting and destruction of government property. But the jury was hung on a total of 10 counts, and a mistrial was declared on those charges.
Tarrio, who was arrested on Jan. 4, 2021, and not at the Capitol, was found not guilty of assaulting officers. Only Pezzola was found guilty of that charge.
They now likely face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors had argued Tarrio and his co-defendants had conspired to unlawfully use force — and the crowds gathered in Washington, D.C. — to keep former President Donald Trump in office.
Soon after the election, investigators alleged Tarrio began posting on social media and in message groups about a "civil war," later threatening, "No Trump…No peace. No Quarter."
Proud Boys leaders saw themselves as "a fighting force" that was "ready to commit violence" on Trump's behalf, the government alleged.
According to charging papers, Nordean, Rehl, Biggs, and Pezzola gathered with over 100 Proud Boys near the Washington Monument on Jan. 6, 2021, around the time that Trump was speaking at the White House Ellipse. They allegedly marched to the Capitol grounds and communicated by radio.
Prosecutors said the defendants were among the first wave of rioters to breach Capitol grounds over police barricades and lead the mob toward the building.
Some defendants – like Pezzola – were accused of breaking windows at the Capitol, while others roused the mob and pushed through metal barricades and police lines to enter the Capitol.
Tarrio wasn't in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6 because he had been arrested for unrelated charges a day earlier. Still, the Justice Department alleged his planning before the attack, support for the rioters during the assault and comments afterward were sufficient to charge him with seditious conspiracy.
"Make no mistake, we did this," Tarrio wrote on social media during the riot.
"The spirit of 1776 has been resurfaced and has created groups like the Proud Boys. And we will not be extinguished," Nordean allegedly wrote in Nov. 2020. "Hopefully the firing squads are for the traitors that are trying to steal the election from the American people," Rehl posted.
Prosecutors said Tarrio exhorted protesters to violence, posting before Jan. 6, "Let's bring this new year in with one word in mind: revolt." In text messages, he later compared Proud Boys' actions that day to those of George Washington, Sam Adams, and Benjamin Franklin.
Defense attorneys countered that the Proud Boys were just a glorified "drinking club" where men shared their anger, and they contended Tarrio and others had no explicit plan to resist the election results or obstruct Congress. Tarrio was merely exercising his constitutional rights, his lawyer argued.
"Did Enrique Tarrio make comments that were egregious? Absolutely," Tarrio's attorney rhetorically asked the jury in closing arguments last week. "You may not like what he said, but it is First Amendment-protected speech."
The verdict against Tarrio and his co-defendants came less than a month before Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison for a conviction of seditious conspiracy. A jury in Washington, D.C., found him and codefendant Kelly Meggs guilty of the high crime but acquitted three others of the charge.
A group of four more Oath Keepers was separately convicted of the seditious conspiracy count earlier this year, all despite efforts by defense attorneys to argue the charge is too extreme and Washington, D.C. jurors too biased.
Defense attorneys in Tarrio's trial consistently laid the blame for the riot at the feet of Trump himself, many mentioning the former president in their opening and closing arguments.
Tarrio's attorney, Nayib Hassan, was even more explicit, telling the jury in closing arguments that "it was Donald Trump's words, it was his motivation, it was his anger that caused what occurred on January 6."