Proud Boys leader Joe Biggs was “an instigator and leader” of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to prosecutors. Now he’ll serve 17 years behind bars after being sentenced for seditious conspiracy on Thursday. It’s a lengthy jail term compared to the other Capitol rioters—only a year shorter than the longest sentence given for Jan. 6-related crimes. That belongs to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who got an 18-year sentence for the same crime. Biggs is a veteran of the U.S. Army and sustained a head injury during his service in Iraq. He later joined right-wing conspiracy website Infowars as a correspondent. When he stormed the Capitol with his fellow Proud Boys on Jan. 6, Biggs was a “vocal leader and influential proponent of the group’s shift toward political violence,” prosecutors argued. But Biggs claimed that couldn’t be farther from the truth. He pleaded with the judge to go light during his sentencing, saying he wanted to be around for his daughter and ailing mother. “I know that I have to be punished and I understand,” he said, according to CNN, but added, “please give me the chance, I beg you, to take my daughter to school and pick her up.” “I’m not a terrorist,” he said. “I’m one of the nicest people in the world.”
