On the day Joe Biggs found out he was being released from a lengthy jail sentence by the newly inaugurated Donald Trump, a prison officer was on hand to dampen his mood.
“You’re still gonna get screwed,” Biggs recalls the guard warning him. “You’re not getting pardoned. You’re only getting your sentence commuted, so you’re still a terrorist.”
It would turn out to be a prescient parting shot.
Days after returning to the White House for a historic second term, Trump overturned the biggest single prosecution in American history by issuing a mass pardon of 1,500 people for their role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
But a much smaller group of 14 people, Biggs included, had their sentences commuted without a pardon, meaning they were released from jail with their crimes still on the books.
“I’m extremely disappointed in him,” Biggs, a former leader of the far-Right Proud Boys who received one of the highest sentences of the January 6 attackers, says of Trump.
“I didn’t go to trial and blame him for it. I didn’t go and say, ‘Oh, this was Trump’s fault.’ I sat there and I bit my tongue and I ate it.”
Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys (L) and Joe Biggs (R) gather outside of Harry’s bar during a protest on December 12, 2020 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
Biggs was sentenced to 17 years for seditious conspiracy for his role in the attack on the Capitol. Prosecutors said he “served as an instigator and leader” of the attack and that by tearing down a fence between protesters and police on that day he took a “deliberate, meaningful step” to disrupting the electoral vote count.
Despite only serving four years of that sentence, Biggs complains that his life is still on hold until he can get a pardon.
“It’s like you’re out of jail, but you’re still in jail,” he tells The Independent.
“You’re kind of a burden on your family when you’re in prison. But now I come home and I’m just draining money. I’m not bringing anything to the table to help my family. So I’m more of a burden, and I don’t fit in. I don’t feel right,” says Biggs.
Because of his particular circumstances, Biggs is now one of only 14 people in the entire country to face any lasting legal consequences for what has been described as the worst attack on American democracy since the Civil War.
His story is full of the same contradictions that characterize the most extreme parts of Trump’s MAGA base. He has gone to jail for Trump, been forgotten by Trump, and yet still believes in Trump.
In the years since the attack, his views on the meaning of January 6 have shifted and changed depending on his circumstances.
At his sentencing, he spoke through tears as he expressed regret.
“On January 6 I was seduced by the crowd and I just moved forward,” he said. “My curiosity got the better of me and I have to live with that for the rest of my life, and I’m so sorry.”
Today, though, he is less circumspect. Asked if he had any regrets about his actions that day, he replies: “No, not really.”
“If I was there slapping people around and acting stupid, yeah, I would probably be ashamed of something like that,” he says.
What he does regret, however, is not getting a pardon. As a retired veteran, Biggs received a monthly pension that provided a large part of his income. He also received health care through the Veteran’s Affairs agency to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and a traumatic brain injury he suffered while deployed to Iraq, for which he received a Purple Heart.
All of that was cut off as a result of his conviction.
“I have PTSD, I have anxiety, I have sleeping issues. You throw in four years of combat, plus four years in prison, two years in solitary confinement — I’d like to be able to go to the doctor. I’d like to be able to talk to somebody and work on some stuff,” he says.
Still, he says he has no regrets for his actions that day. And despite all the damning evidence — the video footage, photos, text messages, and social media posts — Biggs still insists the Democrats, the media and the Justice Department exaggerated the severity of January 6 simply to hurt Trump.
Biggs, who describes himself on X as a “Right Wing Extremist and Proud Terrorist to the left,” has reached out to the key MAGA figures who championed his cause while he was in jail for help. He went to CPAC last month and met with Steve Bannon, but he has since been brushed aside.
“All they care about is having you on their show so they can sell their f***ing products and make money off of you and your story, and then as soon as you walk away, they forget all about you,” he says.
The Trump administration has not given an explanation as to why some of the convicted attackers were given commutations instead of pardons. There is no definitive correlation between the seriousness of the charges and who received one — Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys who received the highest sentence of all, 22 years, was pardoned. Tarrio was not at the Capitol that day, but prosecutors accused him of leading the assault from afar. Many others who committed acts of violence against Capitol police officers also received pardons.
“It blows my mind that there’s people out there with violence — they’re ripping furniture apart and trying to chase cops around, bash their heads in, and they get a full pardon. And meanwhile, I walk around, ask a cop for a bathroom to take a leak, and get treated like a terrorist the entire time,” Biggs says.
Biggs argues his actions on the day in question were the result of being swept along by the crowd, not an attempt to overturn the election.
Prosecutors, on the other hand, accused Biggs of being “the tip of the spear” during the attack on the Capitol, part of a cell created by the Proud Boys leadership that “conspired to prevent, hinder, and delay the certification of the Electoral College vote and to oppose by force the authority of the government of the United States.”
Full list of January 6 rioters whose sentences were commuted
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Stewart Rhodes: Sentenced to 18 years in prison.
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Kelly Meggs: Sentenced to 12 years in prison.
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Kenneth Harrelson: Sentenced to 4 years in prison.
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Jessica Watkins: Sentenced to 8.5 years in prison.
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Roberto Minuta: Sentenced to 4.5 years in prison.
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Edward Vallejo: Sentenced to 3 years in prison, with the first year on home confinement.
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David Moerschel: Sentenced to 3 years in prison.
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Joseph Hackett: Sentenced to 3.5 years in prison.
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Ethan Nordean: Sentenced to 18 years in prison.
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Joseph Biggs: Sentenced to 17 years in prison.
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Zachary Rehl: Sentenced to 15 years in prison.
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Dominic Pezzola: Sentenced to 10 years in prison.
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Jeremy Bertino: Sentenced to 5 years in prison.
They said Biggs breached multiple barricades and tore down fencing on his way into the Capitol.
As the attack was unfolding, Biggs posted a video from the west lawn of the Capitol in which he stood alongside his fellow Proud Boys and said: “January 6 will be a day in infamy.” The next day he appeared on a podcast and said the attack was a “warning shot to the government –look, we started this country this way and we’ll f***kin’ save it this way.”
Prosecutors justified the long sentence by arguing that he was criminally responsible for “actions taken by those who joined the plot” because of his prominent role in the Proud Boys.
“The true nature of Defendant’s dangerousness stems from his role as a leader, and his ability to encourage and coordinate the actions of others in breaching the Capitol at a precise place and time,” the prosecutors said.
Biggs claims to have only been in the Capitol building for around 5-6 minutes and didn’t commit any acts of violence. He also denies the central claim by prosecutors that he was there that day to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.
Four years on, the attack on the U.S. Capitol remains the defining political event of the modern era.
Spurred on by Trump’s false and repeatedly debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, thousands of his supporters marched on the Capitol while the results were being certified. When it became clear that legal efforts to stop the certification had been exhausted, those supporters used violence to force their way inside, beating Capitol police officers and forcing an evacuation of the building to stop the process.
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Trump and the attackers received widespread condemnation from Democrats and Republicans. Today, the meaning of the attack has become a partisan issue.
After initially condemning the violence at the Capitol, Trump reversed course in the years that followed and now refers to it as a “day of love.” In announcing his pardons, he called the jailed rioters “hostages.”
His campaign to rebrand January 6 worked. His base and his party followed suit.
The percentage of Republicans who strongly disapprove of the attack dropped more than 20 points since January 2021 — from 51 percent to 30 percent. More than 70 percent of Republicans supported pardoning those who forced their way into the Capitol.
Trump promised to pardon the January 6 attackers during his campaign for his second term, and fulfilled that promise in his first days in office.
For half of the country, it was the final act of betrayal by a man who had successfully dodged justice for trying to overturn an election. But for Biggs and others involved in the attack, it was the righting of a historic wrong.
Biggs insists the prosecutions against him and the Proud Boys were directed by the Biden administration, then carried out by the Justice Department and “un-American communist losers” in the FBI to send a message.
“They needed a well-known Boogeyman. You can’t if it would have just been like some obscure you’ve got, you know, guy from Utah, right? You know that wouldn’t have been scary,” he insists.
FILE – Proud Boys members Joseph Biggs, left, and Ethan Nordean, right with megaphone, walk toward the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
He received just one year less than the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, who came to Washington, D.C., that day with a team of fellow militia members promising “a bloody and desperate fight.” His group spent thousands of dollars on weapons and formed a “quick reaction force” that was waiting at a hotel across the river in Virginia waiting to join the fight.
The Capitol attack wasn’t the first time Biggs had been in trouble. He and other members of the Proud Boys were successfully sued for $1 million by a historic Black church in Washington, D.C., for destruction of property after they tore down a large Black Lives Matter sign. In his ruling, Judge Kravitz called their conduct “hateful and overtly racist.”
That judgment has exacerbated his current financial and legal troubles.
Since the pardons were issued, militias and far-right groups like the Proud Boys have been emboldened and are regrouping with Trump’s tacit support.
Late last month, Enrique Tarrio and Stewart Rhodes, the leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, held a press conference outside the Capitol building to condemn what Rhodes called the “massive fake conspiracy case” against Trump and their two groups.
The two have spent most of their time since their release calling for retribution against prosecutors who convicted him and his co-conspirators.
Rhodes, who also only received a commutation, is fighting his own battle for a pardon.
“I’m definitely, of course, appreciative and grateful for President Trump for getting me out of prison,” Rhodes told Real America’s Voice during an interview on Sunday. “But I was completely innocent like my co-defendants.”
“What that means is that although our prison sentences are ended — we’re free — we are still second-class citizens because we’re all still felons,” he added.
Biggs, meanwhile, claims he is focused on getting his own life back on track before he fully commits to the Proud Boys again.
“If anybody’s focus is on a club right now, and not them getting their life back, then their priorities are a little off,” he says. “I’m friends with all those guys, and I’ve been to a few events, but I don’t know right now. I just want to get all my stuff squared away.”
