Kansas Proud Boy Sentenced To 4.5 Years For January 6 Insurrection

William Chrestman, 51, has been sentenced to 55 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to obstructing a joint session of Congress and threatening a federal officer at the January 6 invasion of the U.S. Capitol building. #FuckedAroundFoundOut

https://twitter.com/JordanOnRecord/status/1745877997075177955 From the Justice Department:

On Jan. 6, 2021, Chrestman traveled from Arlington to Washington, D.C., with others and met up with a larger group of Proud Boys near the Washington Monument. Chrestman was wearing a tactical vest and protective gloves and carried a gas mask and a wooden axe handle with a flag attached to it.

After joining the large group of Proud Boys, Chrestman marched with them in the street near the U.S. Capitol while shouting, among other things, “Whose streets? Our streets.” 

At about 1:00 p.m., the crowd breached the line of barriers and surged toward the Capitol building. Chrestman and other Proud Boys he had been marching with moved forward as part of this crowd surge during this initial breach. Chrestman then moved to the front of the crowd, where he encouraged other rioters by waving them forward and shouting, “Go! Go! Go!”

Chrestman stood directly next to a line of USCP officers attempting to hold a perimeter. Behind that police line, from an elevated position, other USCP officers were firing less-lethal “pepper-ball” rounds at specific agitators in the crowd who were physically engaging with police.

Court documents say that Chrestman pointed his finger at the officers armed with less-lethal munitions, gestured toward them with his axe handle, and shouted in their direction, “Hey, if you shoot, I’ll f— take your a— out.” 

Chrestman eventually entered the Capitol building via the Senate Wing Door at approximately 2:25 p.m. Once inside, he and others, including other members of the Proud Boys, moved about the building and made their way to the Crypt.

Here, Chrestman and others took steps to ensure that a large metal overhead door near the Crypt would remain open, allowing other rioters to move freely about the building. Specifically, Chrestman used his axe handle to prop open the door. 

At the Capitol Visitor Center, an altercation broke out between police officers and a rioter that the officers attempted to arrest. Chrestman stepped in and prevented the arrest.

Chrestman later said of his actions, “We had the cops running through the f— State Building [sic], dude, trying to slam the emergency doors, like, the big garage door-type ones that segregate off the rooms, and we were throwing f— chairs under there to block it dude, to keep going down… The cops were legitimately scared for their f— lives.”

https://twitter.com/WalterKlingler/status/1746190458659733516 In the 36 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,265 individuals have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 440 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, a felony. In May 2021, Chrestman asked to be released from jail because he was receiving disability benefits and his detention placed him “in danger of losing those significant benefits.” He also claimed to have chronic back pain – a condition, prosecutors say, which didn’t prevent him from allegedly wielding an axe handle against police. The request was denied. https://twitter.com/JoeMyGod/status/1403446458192318467