WASHINGTON (AP) — A former leader of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group was sentenced on Tuesday to more than three years behind bars for joining a plot to attack the U.S. Capitol nearly three years ago.

Charles Donohoe was the second Proud Boy to plead guilty to conspiring with other group members to obstruct the Jan. 6, 2021, joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory. His sentence could be a bellwether for other Proud Boys conspirators who agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors.

Donohoe, 35, of Kernersville, North Carolina, apologized to his family, the law-enforcement officers who guarded the Capitol on Jan. 6, and “America as a whole” for his actions on Jan. 6.

“I knew what I was doing was illegal from the very moment those barricades got knocked down,” he said.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly sentenced him to three years and four months in prison. Donohoe could be eligible for release in a month or two because he gets credit for the jail time he already has served since his March 2021 arrest.

The judge said Donohoe seems to be doing everything in his power to make amends for his crimes.

“I think you’ve got all the ingredients here to put this behind you,” Kelly said.

Donohoe was president of a local Proud Boys chapter in North Carolina. He was a lieutenant of former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison — the longest prison term so far in a Capitol riot case.

In May, a jury convicted Tarrio and three other former Proud Boys leaders of seditious conspiracy charges for plotting to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power from Donald Trump to Biden.

Donohoe agreed to cooperate with federal authorities when he pleaded guilty in April 2020 to two felony counts: conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting or impeding police. But he wasn’t called to testify at the trial of Tarrio and other Proud Boys earlier this year.

Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence ranging from 35 to 43 months for Donohoe. Sentencing guidelines recommended a prison term ranging from 70 to 87 months.

“Donohoe and his co-conspirators organized and led a small army as they launched an attack on the heart of our democracy. They took these actions because they did not like the outcome of the election,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

A New York man, Matthew Greene, was the first Proud Boys member to plead guilty to conspiracy. Greene’s sentencing hearing hasn’t been scheduled yet.

Donohoe acted as the “eyes and ears of the group on the ground” in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, Justice Department prosecutor Jason McCullough told the judge. But prosecutors argued that Donohoe deserves credit for his early acceptance of responsibility and cooperation with the investigation.

On the morning of Jan. 6, Donohoe marched with over 100 members of the Proud Boys to the Capitol. He didn’t enter the Capitol, but he threw two water bottles at officers confronting the mob outside the building.

Donohoe, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served two deployments in Iraq, has “eagerly divorced himself” from the Proud Boys, said defense attorney Ira Knight.

“It took Charlie time to understand the nature of his wrong,” Knight said.

More than 1,200 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Approximately 900 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a judge or jury after trials. Over 700 have been sentenced.

A case unsealed on Monday charges a local political activist from Florida with storming the Capitol building on Jan. 6 with a Proud Boys member. Barbara Balmaseda, 23, of Miami Lakes, Florida, was arrested in her hometown last Thursday on charges including obstruction of justice and disorderly conduct.

A Fox News journalist who interviewed Balmaseda in 2021 identified her as director-at-large of Miami Young Republicans. Her attorney, Nayib Hassan, claims the case against Balmaseda is politically motivated and asserted that her arrest was a “waste of law enforcement resources.”

“She is relieved this process will finally move toward a final resolution,” Hassan said in a statement.

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WASHINGTON NEWS

Enrique Tarrio, the former national chairman of the Proud Boys, has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Tarrio was one of six Proud Boys leaders to be charged for conspiring to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election results in Congress. Of them, he has received the longest prison sentence to date.

Tarrio’s originally scheduled sentencing hearing was postponed last week after Judge Timothy Kelly fell ill.

Prosecutors asked for a 33-year sentence. Tarrio’s attorneys, however, pleaded with Judge Kelly to impose a sentence of no longer than 15 years.

So far, Tarrio’s co-defendants in the Proud Boys seditious conspiracy case have been sentenced to prison stays far shorter than what the government requested of the court.

Of the Jan. 6 rioters, the head of the Seattle chapter of the Proud Boys and Tarrio’s co-defendant Ethan Nordean and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was convicted in a separate case, received the longest sentences so far with 18 years.

Nordean was sentenced last Friday.

Tarrio, Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl were all convicted for seditious conspiracy and other crimes in May. A fifth defendant, Dominic Pezzola, was acquitted on that charge but found guilty of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers and robbery involving government property.

Like Tarrio, prosecutors wanted to see Biggs get 33 years in prison. However, Judge Kelly gave him 17 years.

Tarrio was also convicted for obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging their duties, obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder and destruction of government property with value of over $1,000.

Tarrio wasn’t at the actual Capitol riot because he had been arrested days earlier for setting fire to a Black Lives Matter banner, stolen from Asbury United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., and was ordered out of the city.

Prosecutors say from a hotel outside of D.C., Tarrio directed his Proud Boys to attack the Capitol without him.

Tarrio’s attorney have said he wasn’t in contact with any members of the organization during the riot and pointed to Nordean and Biggs as being the orchestrators of the riot. Further, they said, “Participating in a plan for the Proud Boys to protest on January 6 is not the same as directing others on the ground to storm the Capitol by any means necessary.”

Extremism experts say the Proud Boys likely will feel little impact from these sentences, however.

“They remain active organizing, recruiting,” said Cassie Miller, senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “And this authoritarian movement that they are a part of has continued to grow, as well.”

Miller said that unlike many other paramilitary organizations, the group has grown in both membership and number of chapters since January 6th. She said this is in large part because the far-right group has pivoted away from national organizing to local activism on issues such as the restriction of LGBTQ and abortion rights.

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