WASHINGTON — Ethan Nordean, one of the members of the "Proud Boys" convicted of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 riot, was sentenced Friday in a Washington, D.C. federal court.
Nordean, who hails from Auburn, was sentenced to 18 years in prison and 36 months of supervised release. Prosecutors recommended Nordean get 27 years in prison for his crimes.
Former Washington state Attorney General and KING 5 legal analyst Rob McKenna said this is a rare and significant conviction.
"You have to prove you were trying to get other Americans to reject the authority of the country to prevent laws from being executed; in this case, the laws were certification of the 2020 presidential election," McKenna said. "I think these trials and the convictions will have the effect of causing people to think twice about trying to do something like this again. There will be a deterrent effect, no question about it."
Nordean became the third leader of the far-right extremist group to be sentenced this week after a 17-year prison term was given to organizer Joseph Biggs and a 15-year sentence was given to Zachary Rehl.
The indictment showed social media posts of Nordean’s following the November 2020 election which said: “We tried playing nice and by the rules, now you will deal with the monster you created. The spirit of 1776 has resurfaced and has created groups like the Proud Boys and we will not be extinguished.”
The indictment stated Nordean created a crowdfunding campaign to buy protective gear and radios used on Jan. 6 and detailed events that allege he led Proud Boys members from the Washington Monument to storm the Capitol.
More than 1,000 people have been arrested in connection to Jan. 6. At least 15 are from Washington state, including a Bremerton man who was convicted last month on federal misdemeanor charges.
Enrique Tarrio, Nordean, Biggs and Rehl were also convicted of obstructing Congress’ certification of Biden’s electoral victory and obstructing law enforcement as well as two other conspiracy charges.
Tarrio, a Miami resident who was the Proud Boys’ national chairman and top leader, is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday.
Defense lawyers denied there was any plot to attack the Capitol or stop Congress’ certification of Biden’s win. A lawyer for Tarrio sought to push the blame onto Trump, arguing the former president incited the pro-Trump mob’s attack when he urged the crowd near the White House to “fight like hell.”
“It was Donald Trump’s words," attorney Nayib Hassan said in his final appeal to jurors. "It was his motivation. It was his anger that caused what occurred on January 6th in your beautiful and amazing city. It was not Enrique Tarrio. They want to use Enrique Tarrio as a scapegoat for Donald J. Trump and those in power.”
The Justice Department hadn’t tried a seditious conspiracy case in a decade before a jury convicted another extremist group leader, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, of the Civil War-era charge last year.
Over the course of two Oath Keepers trials, Rhodes and five other members were convicted of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors said was a separate plot to forcibly halt the transfer of presidential power from Trump to Biden. Three defendants were acquitted of the sedition charge, but convicted of obstructing Congress’ certification of Biden’s electoral victory.