Bob’s Burgers actor sentenced to one year in prison for US Capitol riots

Comedian Jay Johnston has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison for his involvement in the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

He had pleaded guilty in July to a misdemeanor charge of interfering with law enforcement officers who tried to stop a mob of Trump supporters from storming the U.S. Capitol.

Johnston, 56, has acting credits in Hollywood dating back to the mid-1990s and was fired from his role on the animated series Bob’s Burgers in December 2021 after being identified as a possible rioter.

Prosecutors had sought a longer prison sentence for Johnston, whose lawyers said the U.S. has also done so “persistently exaggerated” the actor’s role in the attack.

Johnston briefly addressed a Washington DC court on Monday before his sentencing, ABC News reported, describing his role in the attack as “reprehensible”.

Judge Carl Nichols cited Johnston’s successful acting career as the reason his participation was “all the more inexplicable and disturbing”.

Based on body camera and surveillance footage, authorities say Johnston “joined with other rioters in a gang attack” on police officers protecting the entrance to the Capitol and “helped carry a stolen police riot shield outside.”

A police officer was injured at that western entrance.

U.S. prosecutors said Johnston showed little remorse for his actions while demonstrating “a clear knowledge of and participation in the violence used by rioters that day.”

As evidence, prosecutors pointed to a photo showing Johnston dressed as the so-called “QAnon Shaman” at a Halloween party two years after the 2021 incident.

Prosecutors also said Johnston sent messages to friends and family in the days after the riot, claiming the severity of the attacks had been “exaggerated by the media.”

Johnston’s attorney, Stanley Woodward, wrote in a sentencing memo that his client was unfairly targeted “because he is a critically acclaimed Hollywood actor and the government uses his status to communicate to the public.”

Johnston is “essentially blacklisted from Hollywood” and “has spent the last two years working as a handyman – which is clearly a far cry from his real expertise and livelihood in film and television,” Mr Woodward argued.

Johnston had supporting roles in the hit comedy film Anchorman, and on television in Mr Show, Arrested Development and Bob’s Burgers, where he played favorite Italian restaurateur Jimmy Pesto.

Nearly 1,500 people have been charged in connection with the January 6, 2021 riot. According to U.S. Department of Justice figures, nearly 900 people have pleaded guilty to various crimes, and more than 180 have been convicted at trial.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said he would pardon some or all of the rioters — whom he has called “hostages” and “political prisoners” — if he wins the Nov. 5 election.

He did not provide details on who he would release or what criteria he would use to select them.