Washington Resident Sentenced to 55 Months for Participating in January 6 Events

WASHINGTON, (Sputnik) - Former Washington, DC bartender Joshua Pruitt has been sentenced four years and seven months in prison entering with a group of Proud Boys a restricted area of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, the Justice Department said.

"On Jan. 6, 2021, Pruitt - who was in the process of joining the Proud Boys - attended a rally with members of the group, which describes itself as a pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world; aka Western Chauvinists," the Justice Department said in a release on Monday.

Pruitt entered illegally on the restricted grounds of the Northwest Lawn and then followed a group advanced up the stairs to the Upper West Terrace by using a piece of fencing as a makeshift ladder to climb on onto the stairs, the release said.

Pruitt was arrested the night of January 6 for violating a curfew in Washington, DC and law enforcement filed federal charges against him on January 7. Pruitt pleaded guilty on June 3 and accepted a charge of obstruction of an official proceeding, the release added.

Pruitt will be placed on three years of supervised release upon serving the sentence and has been ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution, according to the release.