A former organizer of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys was sentenced to 17 years in prison on Thursday for leading an attack on the US Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 presidential election.

Federal prosecutors had recommended a 33-year prison sentence for Joseph Biggs, who helped dozens of Proud Boys members and associates march on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Biggs and other Proud Boys joined the gang breaking through police lines. and forced lawmakers to flee, disrupting the joint session of Congress to confirm the election victory of Biden, a Democrat.

The judge who sentenced Biggs will also separately sentence four other Proud Boys convicted by a jury in May following a four-month trial in Washington DC that revealed far-right extremists had embraced the lies of Trump, a Republican. The 2020 elections have been stolen from him.

Justice Department demands 33 years in prison for ex-Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio in January 6 case

Enrique Tarrio, a Miami native and Proud Boys national president and top leader, will be sentenced Tuesday. His sentencing was moved from Wednesday to next week because U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly was ill.

Tarrio was not in Washington on January 6. He chose Ethan Nordean, chairman of the Biggs and Proud Boys chapter, as group leaders on the scene during his absence, prosecutors said.

Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida

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, who called himself a Proud Boys organizer. He served in the United States military for eight years before being medically discharged in 2013. Biggs later worked as a correspondent for Infowars, the website of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Biggs, Tarrio, Nordean, and Proud Boys chapter leader Zachary Rehl were convicted of, among other charges, seditious conspiracy, a crime rarely committed during the Civil War. A fifth Proud Boys member, Dominic Pezzola, was acquitted of seditious conspiracy, but was convicted of other serious charges.

Proud boy under house arrest in January 6 case disappears ahead of sentencing

Prosecutors have also recommended prison sentences of 33 years for Tarrio, 30 years for Rehl, 27 years for Nordean and 20 years for Pezzola. The judge will sentence Rehl later on Thursday. Pezzola and Nordean will be sentenced on Friday.

Defense attorneys argued that the Justice Department unfairly held their clients responsible for the violent actions of others in the Trump supporters crowd at the Capitol.

More than 1,100 people have been charged before Capitol

–

riot-related federal crimes. More than 600 of them have been convicted.

The 18-year prison sentence for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes is the harshest sentence

for a January 6 attack during the January 6 attack

so far. Six members of the anti-government oath holders were also convicted of seditious conspiracy after a separate trial last year.