WASHINGTON—Proud Boys leader Ethan Michael Nordean was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Sept. 1, based in part on a terrorism enhancement for tearing down a fence on U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021.
United States District Judge Timothy Kelly gave Mr. Nordean a harsher sentence than three of his co-defendants, but it still fell short of the recommendation from the Department of Justice by nine years. The 18-years matched the record Jan. 6 sentence given to Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III on May 25.
Proud Boys chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio will be sentenced on Sept. 5. The DOJ has asked Judge Kelly to give Mr. Tarrio 33 years in prison.
Mr. Nordean, 33, of Auburn, Washington, was found guilty by a jury in May of seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties, obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, and destruction of government property.
Judge Kelly said a terrorism enhancement applied to Mr. Nordean’s destruction-of-property charge because the Proud Boys’ intention on Jan. 6 was to intimidate or coerce the U.S. government over the 2020 presidential election results.
Defense attorneys David B. Smith and Nicholas Smith disagreed, calculating Mr. Nordean’s sentencing range from 15 to 21 months in prison. The DOJ asked for 27 years in prison, on the low end of a federal sentencing guidelines range of 27 to 33.75 years.
“The government reckons that Nordean’s guidelines range is 324-405 months’ incarceration,” the attorneys wrote in a sentencing memo. “Nordean calculates the range at 15-21 months. The difference lies in the government’s arguments that Congress administers justice and that the terrorism sentencing enhancements apply. It doesn’t, and they don’t.”
The DOJ’s novel use of an evidence-tampering statute in hundreds of Jan. 6 cases relies on the contention that defendants interfered with or obstructed the administration of justice when the counting of the Electoral College votes by a joint session of Congress was delayed by seven hours on Jan. 6. The issue is currently before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Defied Police
Prosecutors argued that Mr. Nordean became the de facto leader of the Proud Boys in Washington on Jan. 6 when Mr. Tarrio was ordered by a judge to leave the District of Columbia on Jan. 5.“Nordean’s prominence in the group was the result of his large stature and reputation for doling out physical violence,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “Nordean embraced that reputation.
“Nordean led a group of nearly 200 men to the Capitol and onto Capitol grounds,” prosecutors wrote. “He immediately moved to the front of the throng and took action by tearing down the fence, which permitted the rioters to proceed further into the restricted area. He defied law enforcement’s calls to disperse, and he ignored calls from his own men to leave.”
Mr. Nordean was primed for violence as part of a second American revolution, prosecutors said, quoting Mr. Nordean’s description as “seventeen hundred [expletive] seventy-six.”
“Nordean’s crimes were ‘calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion, or to retaliate against government conduct,'” prosecutors wrote. “Nordean arrived at the Capitol to lead a revolution against a government that he viewed as illegitimate.”
