Proud Boy claims ‘Trump won’ after sobbing for mercy and receiving 10-year sentence: reports
Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola sobbed in a Washington, D.C., courtroom Friday as he asked a federal judge for leniency in his Jan. 6 sentence and vowed to stay out of politics in the future.
However, after receiving a 10-year prison sentence, Pezzola reportedly raised his fist and shouted, “Trump won,” as he left the courtroom, according to WUSA.
The 46-year-old, who smashed a Capitol window with a stolen police riot shield, stood trial alongside four other members of the Proud Boys earlier this year in one of the most high-profile cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
The group faced seditious conspiracy charges for leading efforts to disrupt Congress’s certification of the 2020 election, following former President Trump’s loss to then-President-elect Joe Biden.
Pezzola, a recent Proud Boy recruit, was the only one of the five to be acquitted of seditious conspiracy. However, he was convicted of assaulting, resisting or impeding a police officer, robbery of government property and destruction of government property.
At Friday’s sentencing hearing, Pezzola apologized for his actions and told U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly that Jan. 6 was “the worst, most regrettable decision in my life,” according to NBC News.
“Your honor, I stand before you as a changed and humbled man,” he also said, according to WUSA. “But, nonetheless as a man who has always taken responsibility for his actions … I have never denied what I did on J6.”
However, after the judge left the courtroom, Pezzola shouted out his support for Trump.
Another Jan. 6 rioter, who used a Taser on former D.C. police officer Michael Fanone in the neck as he was dragged through the crowd, similarly shouted the phrase “Trump won” following his sentencing in June, NBC News reported.
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