Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and directing a failed plot to prevent Donald Trump from transferring power to Joe Biden. The sentence handed down by District Judge Timothy Kelly is the longest anyone has received in connection with the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

“The jury did not convict anyone of political activity, but convicted Mr. Tarrio and others of seditious conspiracy,” Judge Kelly said Tuesday. “I have no indication that he feels any remorse for the things he was convicted of, which are seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct the vote count. Mr. Tarrio was the actual leader of this conspiracy,” Kelly said. “I don’t think that’s really controversial.”

Proud Boys leader sentenced to 22 years in prison for storming US Capitol

Tarrio had been arrested a few days before the Washington, DC riot, for burning the Black Lives Matter banner of a DC church and bringing gun magazines into the precinct. He was ordered by a judge to leave town. However, Kelly said that while Tarrio was not present at the Capitol during the attack, the Proud Boys leader “had an outsized influence on the events of the day.”

After the 2020 presidential election, Trump refused to acknowledge his defeat by Biden and made allegations of voter fraud that have been refuted many times. At noon on January 6, 2021, the Republican called on his supporters to march to the Capitol and fight “whatever the hell.” The ensuing attack on the Capitol, which left five dead, caused horror around the world and is considered a black day in the history of US democracy.