Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!

A number of the senior figures in the right-wing terrorist group the Proud boys have been fdound guilty of seditious conspiracy.

They could be sentenced to more then 20 years in prison. 

Here's hoping that the prosecution gets the sentences that they are asking for:

Former Proud Boys chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and three other leaders of the far-right extremist group were found guilty Thursday of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

A jury deliberated for seven days in Washington before finding Tarrio, 39, and other defendants guilty on 31 of 46 counts. The jury returned not-guilty verdicts on five counts — including acquitting one member, Dominic Pezzola, of seditious conspiracy — and deadlocked on 10 others. The result marked the third decisive victory for the Justice Department in three seditious conspiracy trials held after what it called a historic act of domestic terrorism to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 presidential election.

What took them so long?

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U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly told the parties that he expected to impose sentences in August.

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The convictions mark a milestone on the journey to accountability for the perpetrators of the Capitol attack, “showing that political violence and attacks on our democratic institutions will be taken seriously by our justice system and will not be tolerated by the American people,” said Lindsay Schubiner, director of programs at Western States Center, a Portland-based civil rights group that monitors anti-democracy movements nationwide.

Over nearly 15 weeks of proceedings, prosecutors alleged that the Proud Boys on trial saw themselves as Trump’s “army.” Inspired by his directive to “stand by” during a September 2020 presidential debate and mobilized by his December 2020 call for a “wild” protest, prosecutors said, the men sought to keep Trump in power through violence on the day that Congress met to certify the presidential election results.

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All defendants were convicted of at least one count punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Tarrio and fellow Proud Boys leaders Ethan Nordean, Joe Biggs and Zachary Rehl were found guilty of three such crimes: seditious conspiracy — or plotting to oppose by force Congress’s certification — conspiring to obstruct the congressional session, and actually obstructing the proceeding.

The jury did not find that Pezzola, who joined the Proud Boys in late 2020, was part of either conspiracy, but it did find him guilty of the obstruction charge, as well as of assaulting police, stealing a riot shield and smashing the first window breached by rioters, and of conspiring to impede lawmakers and police. All five were convicted of conspiring to block lawmakers and police from doing their jobs.

Unfortunately, the next Republican President will pardon them all, but with a little bit of luck, that won't be in 2023.