good evening from New York I'm Chris Hayes today a federal judge sentenced one of the most infamous figures in the January 6th attack on the capitol to 10 years in prison proud boy Dominic pizzola was convicted of six felonies for his actions that day along with several other members at the far right quasi militia group on January 6 pazola was the first person to breach the Capitol Building smashing open a window with a riot shield he'd stolen from an officer thank you [Applause] inside the buil
ding pozole had a group of rioters through the Halls where they came within sight of Senator Chuck Grassley then third in line to the presidency as he was evacuated from the Senate chamber Zola also filmed himself in the capital smoking what he called a Victory Cigar though that didn't really turn out now pizzolo is actually the third proud boy to be sentenced this week yesterday judge Timothy Kelly handed down a 15-year sentence to Zachary Rel who led 200 people to the Capitol on January 6th in
17 years for Joseph Biggs whose prosecutors described as the tip of the spear throughout the attack this afternoon he also sentenced Ethan Nordeen former president of The Proud boys Seattle chapter to 18 years those men received longer sentences because they were convicted of the rare and quite serious charge of seditious conspiracy Dominic pizzolo was the only one of his co-defendants to be acquitted on that charge today in front of Judge Kelly pazola expressed remorse calling his actions clos
e the worst most regrettable decision in his life he was also seen wiping white tears while his wife and mother spoke to the court pleading for mercy on his behalf but after the judge announced a 10-year sentence as he's being led out of the courtroom pazola turned to the gallery raised a fist and shouted quote Trump won now so far all of these sentences remembers of The Proud boys have represented significant downward departures from the federal sentencing guidelines and the government's reques
t prosecutors asked for 33 years for Joseph Biggs 30 for Zachary reel 27 for Ethan Nordeen and 20 for Dominic pizzola they each received a lot less than that and as I've said before I'm generally in favor of lower sentences I think this is something we get wrong in this country prison sentences in the U.S are much more severe than our peers averaging twice as long as the next country which is Hungary but I also got to say is these January 6 cases pile up it's become even clearer that we live in
a country with a two-tier system of justice and it's enraging on January 6 2021 thousands of people descended on the capitol and a violent attack broadcast live on television there were just a handful of arrests that day nearly all those people left freely they went home now to their credit the doj then launched a massive investigation charging more than a thousand Riders the vast majority of them have not been in jail while they await trial and that itself is not the norm let's be clear studies
show that 75 percent of people charged in federal court are detained pre-trial many because they cannot afford bail yet there are some that were detained pre-trial and some of those jail generalistics defendants and their allies like Marjorie teller green and Donald Trump have loudly complained about the conditions of their detention well the conditions in American jails are awful that's true it's true for everyone who goes there most of the time Marjorie teller Greene and Donald Trump and all
the rest don't really care much about it take the Fulton County jail for example will Donald Trump briefly stopped in last week pulled up in a giant motorgate a pre-negotiated bond agreement spent a grand total of about 20 minutes inside ever since the ex-president has been whining about how humiliating it was to have his mug shot taken of course much worse things happened in that jail to people who go there for things that are to my mind much less serious than trying to overthrow American democ
racy 23 people have died while in custody at the Fulton County Jail in a little over three years just last week listen to this a 34 year old inmate was found dead days after he sent a desperate letter to Federal Court about his treatment at the jail this week this week one day Tami was killed two others injured in multiple stabbings there's an ongoing doj civil rights investigation into the Jail's conditions the places of Human Rights disaster that's the context you remember when people like Don
ald Trump and his co-defendants complain about being persecuted or treating unfairly 18 to the 19 co-defendants in the Fulton County election RICO case have not set foot in a cell I should note the one person who did the only black man charged Harrison Floyd he was detained for five days after turning himself in without a lawyer and without negotiating a bond agreement ahead of time Floyd also had a recent arrest on his record for allegedly charging at an FBI agent who served him with a grand ju
ry subpoena earlier this year so as we all watch the legal maneuvering of these defendants as we analyze it and dissect it and they're exercising the due process they are entitled to by the U.S Constitution we just have to remember their experience this experience for watching play out is completely and totally removed from the actual day-to-day reality of how the American criminal justice system works the vast majority of defendants in this country are not running around filing motions and sell
ing T-shirts with their mug shirts on mugshots on it they are sitting in jail jails that are often dangerous where they may get a few visits from their public defender before they go and plead guilty that's how the system normally works what Donald Trump and his co-defendants including the proud boys have experienced can only be described as the white glove bespoke five-star top-tier version of the American justice system and they still say they're being unfairly persecuted and they are still la
rgely under deterred I mean that's clear as Donald Trump continues flying around in his private jet his former lawyer John Eastman keeps making TV appearances it's clear from the behavior of Broadway down at pizzolal in court today when he stood up called himself a change in Hubble man received a 10-year sentence again significantly less than prosecutors asked for and when the judge left the room Dominic pizola turned to the gallery to yell Trump one I'm not sure if the lesson is really getting
through [Music]
Comments
Imagine going to prison for 10 years for someone who has never even thought of you.
I can't imagine devoting my life for a person who doesn't care about any of us.
Just imagine going to prison , losing your freedom for someone who doesn’t give a piece of turd about you, what a genius!
This’ll hopefully tarnish any attempts at persuading a parole board
Wow, saying one thing and then, once sentenced, saying what he REALLY thinks. You can be sure that the parole board will remember the sincerity of his final words when he tries to convince them that he's learned his lesson.
They did exactly what their lawyers told them to do. Tell the judge what he/she wants to hear regardless of what you really think.
Proud Boys, stand back and stand by to do some serious time - Sincerely, The American people.
If I were the judge, I would have called him back in after hearing his outburst upon leaving the courtroom, held him in contempt, and tacked on an additional 2 or 3 years. Then asked if he had anything else to say, and waited... ANYTHING else that came out of that person's mouth after being found in contempt that wasn't "I'm sorry, Judge" or "I was wrong", I would keep adding 2 years. No sympathy for traitors.
Funny how these Republicans never care about jail conditions unless their followers end up there
It has irked me tremendously that those people aren’t in jail already
Extend his sentence. These fools have proven over and over that their remorse and contrition is all an act. They’re proud of what they did and they’re trying to take advantage of the courts
This is true. There is at least a two-tiered system of justice in the United States. One tier is for defendants who can afford to hire a lawyer. The other tier is for most defendants represented by public defenders. While the public defenders try to do their best, their caseload is so high that they are lucky to be able to avoid mixing up the cases in their mind. It may be more accurately described as multi-tiered, since there are lawyers that cost thousands of dollars up to lawyers who cost millions of dollars.
When someone has already shown you who they are,believe them.
That they didn't get close to what prosecutors asked for is in itself a travesty of justice. Our system stinks to high heaven!
Wait! If having sworn under oath directly to the judge that he was "a changed man" and then shown clearly by his defiant--to say nothing of his delusional--outburst that he lied to the court, then there should be a re-sentencing hearing to impose the maximum sentence allowed by law as well as an additional sentence for flagrant perjury.
That defiant shout, to fish for a pardon, is going to haunt him at his parole hearings.
And the instigator for all of this nonsense still walks free
The farther out we get from that day the crazier it gets. Still unbelievable that something like that could happen in this day and age
Judges should take note. None of these guys are sorry for what they did. Give everyone of them the max!
The justice system is definitely not working as it was designed to work. It gives the appearance that we have two justice systems running simultaneously. We truly need some serious change in this country going forward. All accused persons should be treated the same, and all convicted criminals should be treated the same no matter their social or political status.