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| Photo Credit: AP. |
A Maryland rioter with ties to far-right extremist group Proud Boys who encountered Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer during the Capitol Hill riot has been sentenced to over four years in prison for his role during the insurrection. Armed security details of Schumer led him away to a safe room.
Did rioter Pruitt confront Schumer on January 6?
Joshua
Pruitt, 40 was one of the few Capitol rioters to come face-to-face with a
member of Congress during the January 6, 2021 violent attack on Congress by a riotous
mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters, The Associated Press quoted
federal prosecutors as saying.
“One look at
Pruitt, and the leader of Senator Schumer’s security detail immediately saw the
threat and hustled the 70-year-old senator down a hallway, having to change
their evacuation route on a dime,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexis Loeb wrote in
a court filing ahead of Monday’s hearing, The Associated Press reported.
The
Associated Press quoted spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office for the
District of Columbia as saying that U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly sentenced
Pruitt to four years and seven months in prison followed by three years of
supervised release.
Who was Pruitt before he joined pro-Trump mob at Congress?
Prosecutors
say the Silver Spring, Maryland, resident initially worked as a bartender and
personal trainer, adding the intimidating figure of the aspiring Proud Boys
member made him an “ideal recruit” for the group on January 6.
The leader
of Schumer’s security detail told the FBI that their encounter with Pruitt was
a harrowing, unforgettable moment. The rioter was advancing and only seconds
from reaching Schumer when the security detail turned and ran with the senator
away from an elevator and back down a ramp, The Associated Press quoted detail
members as saying.
“At the end
of the ramp, officers closed and locked the doors. The security detail and
(Schumer) pursued a secondary evacuation route. Once the doors were being
closed, Pruitt turned around and retraced his steps,” Loeb wrote, according to
The Associated Press.
Prosecutors
said Pruitt and other prospects and recruits of the local Proud Boys chapter
often used encrypted communications to discuss storming the Capitol, civil war
and confrontations with police.
“He
personally forced a 70-year-old Senator to run and find another path to safety.
Among all the rioters who stormed the Capitol, it is a notorious distinction,”
Loeb wrote.
Prosecutors
accused Pruitt of attempting to prevent Congress from certifying the Electoral
College votes on January 6, as they sought a five year sentence for him.
Pruitt’s
defense attorney Robert Jenkins Jr. said the rioter saw the security detail but
didn’t recognize Schumer.
“It’s not as
though that Mr. Pruitt ran toward the detail or made any threatening posture
toward them. He noticed that they were there. They went down a hallway. Mr.
Pruitt went in a different direction,” Jenkins said after the sentencing
hearing, The Associated Press reported.
The defense
counsel who sought a three-year prison sentence for Pruitt criticized the
55-month sentence on his client, arguing that it was disproportionately higher
than other Capitol rioters since Pruitt was not armed and did not assault any
police officer.
Over 240
Capitol Hill rioters have been sentenced following the deadly assault on
Congress.
Prosecutors
described Pruitt as a “one-man symbol of the angry mob at the Capitol that
day.” Many of the police officers guarding the Capitol on Jan. 6 remembered him
as an instigator, prosecutors said.
“Wearing a tactical
glove with knuckle pads and a cut-off t-shirt with the logo of the ‘Punisher’ —
an antihero known for dispensing violent vigilante justice — Pruitt made a
calculated choice to use his thickly muscled appearance to communicate to the
police that they faced a dangerous person,” Loeb wrote.
Several
dozen leaders of Proud Boys as well as members and associates have been charged
with Capitol riot-related offences.
In June Pruitt
pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding, the
joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020
presidential elections.