Proud boy member who helped the prosecution, convicted of attack on January 6

A former Proud Boys leader who helped the government investigate and prosecute others in the far-right group involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol was sentenced Tuesday to 40 months in prison for his own role in the raid .

His sentence was slightly longer than the nearly 38 months he has served since his arrest after the riot, meaning he will be released in just over two months.

Its former leader, Charles Donohoe, was the first member of the Proud Boys to cooperate with prosecutors to be convicted of participating in the attack on the Capitol.

Although Mr. Donohoe, who once led a Proud Boys chapter in North Carolina, never publicly testified against any of his compatriots, his sentence reflected the value prosecutors placed on his help. His cooperation contributed, among other things, to the conviction of four members of the organization – including former chairman Enrique Tarrio – this spring for seditious conspiracy.

During a two-hour hearing in Federal District Court in Washington, Mr. Donohoe, a 35-year-old former Marine, expressed regret over the role he played in the storming of the Capitol. He said he knew from the beginning that his actions were evil. illegal.

“I want to apologize to America as a whole,” he said, adding that his struggles with addiction had clouded his judgment leading up to the riot.

Prosecutors said little about his cooperation agreement, focusing instead on his leadership role in the Proud Boys and his contributions to the group’s planning before the riot.

Judge Timothy J. Kelly echoed those concerns, noting that Mr. Donahoe’s involvement in the conspiracy orchestrated by the Proud Boys was a departure from an otherwise civilian life that also included military service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“That’s the nature of conspiracies,” Judge Kelly said. “They’re not one-time mistakes, they’re ongoing mistakes over time.”

The Proud Boys were among President Donald J. Trump’s most outspoken supporters after his loss in the 2020 election, and were at the center of a series of so-called Stop the Steal rallies in Washington after Mr. Trump’s defeat.

The group also played a crucial role in promoting the violence that erupted at the Capitol on January 6, helping lead pro-Trump mobs in breaking through barricades and attacking police.

Mr. Donohoe was part of the leadership team of the so-called Ministry of Self-Defense, a group of Proud Boys selected by Mr. Tarrio to be at the forefront of the attack on the Capitol. Prosecutors say Mr. Donohoe joined the group’s efforts to push toward the building — at one point removing a police riot shield that another Proud Boys member, Dominic Pezzola, had taken from an officer taken away.

Mr. Donohoe also sent messages from the front lines back to other leaders, including “a real-time video report” that some Proud Boys had “stormed the Capitol” just before 1 p.m., prosecutors said.

After the attack, Mr. Donohoe sent more messages celebrating the riot and stating that the day’s events made him “feel like a complete warrior,” prosecutors said.

Mr. Donohoe was charged in March 2022 along with other Proud Boys leaders, including Mr. Tarrio, with participating in a conspiracy to obstruct the certification of the election that took place at the Capitol on January 6.

A month later, he pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors — one of several members of the Proud Boys who ultimately turned on their allies.

Internal FBI records show that federal agents have made a concerted effort to recruit collaborators during their extensive investigation into the far-right group. Two former Proud Boys — Matthew Greene and Jeremy Bertino — testified on behalf of the government at the incitement trial, telling the jury about the mindset of the organization’s leaders leading up to Jan. 6 and the group’s obsession with physical violence.