WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors said a man was charged Jan. 6 with “inciting violence,” “s—” and “inciting anarchy.” Attack on the US Capitol Sentencing is scheduled for Friday afternoon, with the government seeking a maximum sentence of more than seven years in federal prison.
John Sullivan In November, he was found guilty of multiple charges, including aggravated obstruction of justice and inciting a civil disturbance. During closing arguments, a federal prosecutor told jurors that Sullivan had gone to the Capitol “with the intention of inciting a mob,” and prosecutors presented proof of his boasting of being “at the front” during the attack.
“I brought my megaphone to stir up the —,” Sullivan it is said in the footage played for the judgesin which Sullivan boasted that he was trying to “piss off Trump supporters.”
Sullivan, also known as “Jayden X,” has been a cause for concern for conservatives seeking to distract from the actions of the pro-Donald Trump mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and brutally attacked officers. Sullivan is a political outsider among the January 6 defendants, most of them They still believe the lies about the 2020 election that led to the attack. Sullivan is not a Trump supporter; Prosecutors described him as an “extra-institutional” activist who wanted to “burn everything down.” He identified himself as a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, but BLM activists distanced themselves from Sullivan in 2020. His brother, James Sullivan, is a right-wing activist with ties to the Proud Boys.
John Sullivan will be sentenced Friday afternoon by Judge Royce C. Lamberth, a Ronald Reagan appointee. He spoke about the seriousness of the January 6 attack and ordered Sullivan to be jailed after his conviction last year. A seven-year federal prison sentence would have been one of the longest sentences handed down in connection with the Capitol attack.
Sullivan took some of the better-known images of his death Ashley Babbitt, he was fatally shot after jumping through a broken window leading to the Speaker of the House lobby. His footage was later bought by many media outlets. He claimed he was filming there as a journalist after the riot, but prosecutors presented evidence during the trial that Sullivan believed the filming was just “a good ruse so I don’t get arrested” and claimed in a sentencing memo that it was the “real purpose”. his presence in the Capitol was to “incite anarchy.”
NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News, is one of the media outlets that licensed Sullivan’s footage after the attack. Federal prosecutors previously seized $90,875 in funds Sullivan received from various media outlets and asked the judge to fine him $90,875 so he cannot capitalize on his “participation in Capitol violations” and must be fined. the entire amount of his earnings.”
Sullivan told documentary filmmaker Jade Sacker, who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, that she “stands for anybody who wants to tear it down and put something new in its place, something better,” prosecutors said. He changed how he portrayed himself when he began efforts to license the footage, prosecutors said.
“As his campaign to sell footage to news outlets developed, Sullivan suddenly began to portray himself as a journalist, even changing the title of his website from ‘activist’ to ‘journalist,'” prosecutors wrote. “The reason for Sullivan’s reinvention is clear: he engaged in the ‘good trick’ he and Saker had employed that day to bury the real purpose of his presence in the Capitol – to foment anarchy.”
Sullivan was also armed with “an almost four-inch blade that he offered to rioters at the Main Door of the House and the Speaker’s Door during two of the most serious turning points on January 6, 2021.” “said the prosecutors.
Sullivan’s said the defense team said the former Eagle Scout had a “passion for in-line skating” and a passion for speed skating, but his Olympic prospects were derailed by injury. They said Sullivan had “lived an admirable and caring life, a man with a sense of responsibility, commitment to his family, friends and community, and a desire to improve the lives of those around him,” and urged the judge to do so. “Think of the whole person.”
Since Sullivan was jailed after his conviction, his attorney said there has been a “dramatic decline in his mental stability and general physical presence.” Sullivan was separated from the other defendants in a Washington prison on January 6 because authorities believed that being incarcerated with the defendants on January 6, who support Trump, would be a “threat to his physical safety.”
More than 1,387 Capitol attack defendants have been charged, and prosecutors have secured more than 984 convictions. While hundreds of low-level rioters were sentenced to probation on January 6, more than 520 were sentenced to prison terms ranging from a few days behind bars. 22 years in federal prison. It’s just about 15 accused persons are in prison until the trialmeaning they have not been convicted of a crime, but a judge has determined they are either a danger to the community or a flight risk.