This Holiday Season, Celebrate the Twelve Longest Prison Sentences for January 6th

     There is so much frustration and so many unanswered questions surrounding the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th: Who is the Sedition Bomber? How deeply does the corruption in the Secret Service run, when Mike Pence and Joe Biden agree on not trusting them? Why isn't Donald Trump in handcuffs? Why aren't most of his consiglieres? Why isn't more attention being paid to the role InfoWars played in coordinating and documenting the events at the Capitol?

     However, there is also reason for hope. The January 6th Committee laid out a road map for recently-appointed special counsel Jack Smith to prosecute Donald Trump for his role. The founder and leader of the Oath Keepers and the leaders of the Florida and Alabama chapters have been convicted of sedition, as has the president of the North Carolina Proud Boys. Five Proud Boys, including former national chairman Enrique Tarrio, and four more Oath Keepers are currently on trial for the same charge. Of the 50+ trials that have taken place, the majority have ended with convictions on all counts, with only one suspect being acquitted outright; nearly 500 have pleaded guilty. Nearly 1,000 people have been arrested for their actions, some of whom have received hefty prison sentences. 

     On that note, this holiday season, celebrate the 12 longest prison sentences for January 6th suspects to date:

     1. Thomas Webster: 10 years in prison

     A former U.S. Marine and member of the NYPD who served on then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg's security detail, Thomas Webster witnessed the assault on Michael Fanone and other officers at the entrance of the Lower West Terrace tunnel, pushed against police barricades, assaulted an officer with a steel flagpole with such forced that it broke, and then tackled and gouged the eyes of another officer. He was convicted at trial of five felonies and a misdemeanor.

     2. Albuquerque Head: 7.5 years in prison

     A Confederate sympathizer with a lengthy criminal history, Albuquerque Head was responsible for grabbing Officer Michael Fanone, shouting "I've got one," and feeding him to the mob that beat and tazed him. He pleaded guilty to a single felony and was sentenced to 90 months in prison, just short of the full eight years prosecutors were asking for.

     3./4. Guy Reffitt/Thomas Robertson: 7.25 years in prison

     A Three Percenters recruiter and the first rioter convicted at trial, and of five felonies at that, Guy Reffitt riled up the crowd and led the charge up the Capitol steps before being pepper sprayed, all while armed with a weapon in his holster, before threatening to kill his son for turning him into the FBI. He was sentenced to 87 months in prison.

     A Rocky Mount, Virginia, police officer who carried a walking stick, pushed up against police officers inside the Capitol rotunda, stocked up on weapons after his arrest, and threatened future acts of violence; Thomas Robertson was convicted of five felonies and a misdemeanor at trial and received the same sentence as Robertson.

     5. Kyle Young: 7.2 years in prison

     Another career criminal involved in the assault on Officer Michael Fanone, Kyle Young brought his son with him into the midst of the mob, restrained Fanone while he was assaulted, and shouted, "Kill him with his own gun," while handing a stun gun to another insurrectionist who used it on Fanone. He pleaded guilty to a felony charge and was sentenced to 86 months in prison out of a sentencing range of 78 to 97 months, just what prosecutors had asked for.

     6./7./8. Ronald Sandlin/Robert Scott Palmer/Mark Ponder: 5.25 years in prison

     A Mexican immigrant and YouTube scam artist, Ronald Sandlin traveled to Washington, D.C. with Nevada survivalist Nathaniel DeGrave and "balcony swinger" Josiah Colt, who pleaded guilty to felonies and face sentencing ranges of 78 to 97 months and 51 to 63 months, respectively. Sandlin was involved in some of the heaviest violence on the Eastern Terrace of the Capitol, helping to open doors to the Senate, pulling away police who were defending the doors and telling them they would die, smoking marijuana inside the Senate chamber, and stealing and attempting to steal multiple items while livestreaming himself crying tears of joy. He has been involved in acts of violence against prison guards while locked up and continued to paint himself as a political prisoner to raise money, including by attempting to sell footage he shot to Nancy Pelosi's filmmaker daughter. He was sentenced to 63 months in prison, exactly what prosecutors were asking for.

     A Florida small business owner who pleaded guilty to a felony assault with a deadly weapon charge for throwing a pole at law enforcement, spraying them with a fire extinguisher, throwing said fire extinguisher, and then picking it up and throwing it back again while wearing an American flag sweater in the Lower West Terrace tunnel; Robert Scott Palmer was sentenced to 63 months in prison, the longest sentence handed down in 2021. He received the stiffer sentence after he created a fundraiser post-guilty plea claiming self defense; the judge then decided not to give him any credit for remorse.

     A convicted felon and career criminal who served three years in prison for robbery, Mark Ponder used a hockey stick and other objects to assault police officers (including Aquilino Gonell, whose career he ended). He was detained before being let go due to a lack of police resources, after which he remained on Capitol grounds for several hours. His sentence of 63 months was three months longer than even the DOJ requested.

     9./10./11. Anthony Williams/Mark Mazza/Doug Jensen: 5 years in prison

     Anthony Williams, a Michigan man who carried the American flag in the Capitol rotunda, was convicted by a jury of a felony obstruction count and numerous misdemeanors for his actions on January 6th and sentenced to five years in prison, shy of the 70 months prosecutors were requesting but still a hefty sentence.

     Mark Mazza, an Indiana man who brought guns to the Capitol, assaulted police, and falsely claimed one of his weapons was stolen when he dropped it at the foot of an officer; was sentenced to 60 months, or five years, in prison after pleading guilty to a felony assault charge and another felony weapons charge. The man in his late 50s was only able to avoid a 78-month (6.5-year) sentence due to his lack of a criminal record and his expression of seemingly genuine remorse.

     Doug Jensen, the "Poster Boy of the Insurrection" who wore a QAnon shirt while chasing Officer Eugene Goodman, was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted by a jury of five felonies and numerous related misdemeanors for his actions that day.

     12. Joshua Pruitt: 4.6 years in prison

     Yet another career criminal, Joshua Pruitt was a Proud Boys recruit and bodybuilder most notable for encountering and briefly giving chase to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer during the insurrection. The D.C. resident repeated the Big Lie at his sentencing and received 55 months, or four years and seven months (roughly 4.6 years) in prison for his actions.