WASHINGTON, DC — The leader of West Virginia’s Proud Boys was sentenced this week to 75 days incarceration for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Jeffery Finley, 30, of Martinsburg also must serve 12 months of supervised release and $500 restitution as his share of the damage to the Capitol.
Finley was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before Judge Tanya Chutkan after pleading guilty to a federal charge of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds on Jan. 6, 2021.
Prosecutors said he was among the first wave of people to cross onto restricted Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, and he remained there for almost two hours while watching law enforcement attempt to repel the crowd. He went into the Capitol building with other Proud Boys. And, after he left, prosecutors say he tried to cover his trail by deleting his social media accounts and photographs and videos of himself and others at the Capitol.
Federal guidelines for the count call for 0 to six months jail time, and Finley’s lawyer asked for the low end of that range.
Prosecutors asked for three months in jail, 12 months of supervised release, 60 hours of community service, and $500 restitution.
The mob storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 disrupted the constitutional duty of counting Electoral College votes and prompted the evacuations of representatives, senators and Vice President Mike Pence. One woman was fatally shot while trying to climb into the chambers, three others died from “medical emergencies” and more than 100 police officers were injured.
Finley was not accused of a direct act of violence, but prosecutors said he went where he should not have been and complicated the ability of police to control the crowd. Each step of the way, he accompanied higher-ranking members of the Proud Boys, self-described as a “pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world; aka Western Chauvinists.”
Some leaders of the Proud Boys are currently the subjects of a separate trial on seditious conspiracy charges.
In that case, former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants are accused of plotting to keep Democrat Joe Biden out of the White House after he defeated then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Prosecutors say the Proud Boys went on to mount a coordinated assault on the Capitol alongside hundreds of other Trump supporters.
Finley indicated to federal prosecutors and the judge in his case that he has severed his relationship with the Proud Boys organization. He joined the group a few years ago and started West Virginia’s chapter because there previously had not been one.
–Story by WVMetroNews Statewide Correspondent Brad McElhinny