WASHINGTON (AP) — A far-right internet figure who broadcast live video of the storming of the US Capitol was sentenced Tuesday to two months in prison for joining a mob attack on the building.
Antim Gionet, known to his social media followers as “Baked Alaska,” refused to go to court until U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden sentenced him to 60 days in jail followed by two years’ probation. Gione faced up to six months in prison.
Gione blamed himself and other rioters in a video he broadcast live to an audience of approximately 16,000 subscribers. The 27-minute video shows him urging other rioters to stay in the Capitol.
“You have done everything possible to publicize your misconduct,” Judge Gionetou said. “You supported and fully participated in what was happening there.”
In Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley’s office, Gione was videotaped picking up the phone and pretending to report a “rigged election,” echoing former President Donald Trump’s baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
“We need our boy, Donald J. Trump, to take office,” Gionet added.
Gionette joined the others in chanting “Patriots rule!” and “Whose house? Our home!” Before leaving, he obscenely called a Capitol police officer a “perjurer.”
Gionet, 35, pleaded guilty in July to a misdemeanor related to a parade, demonstration, or picketing inside the Capitol building.
Prosecutors recommended that Gione be sentenced to 75 days in prison, three years of probation and 60 hours of community service.
Gionet worked for BuzzFeed before using videos on social media to become an influencer on the political far right. He was scheduled to speak at the Unite the Right white nationalist rally in 2017 before it erupted into violence on the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia.
U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan was originally supposed to sentence Gionet. Sullivan recently withdrew from the Gionet case and several others for reasons not listed in court documents, although he received “senior status” and quit his full-time job almost two years ago.
Gione celebrated online as his case was handed over to McFadden, Trump’s nominee. Live, Gionet praised McFadden as “a very tough pro-Trump judge and one of the judges who let one of the guys stay innocent at trial.”
McFadden acquitted New Mexico resident Matthew Martin of the April 2022 riot charges after hearing evidence in a non-jury trial. Martin is the only defendant on January 6 to have all charges dropped after the trial.
More than 900 people have been charged with federal crimes related to January 6th. Nearly 500 of them pleaded guilty, mostly to minor offenses, and more than 350 of them were convicted.
Federal authorities used Gionet’s video to prosecute other rioters, including three men from New York. Antonio Ferrigno, Francis Connor and Anton Lunik pleaded guilty last year and were sentenced to home confinement. Gionet’s live broadcast showed them in Merkley’s office.
Defense attorney Zachary Thornley argued in the lawsuit that Gionet “never crossed the line from protester to rioter”. Thornley described his client as “something like a partisan journalist”.
“He was there to document. That’s what he’s doing,” the lawyer told the judge.
Major internet platforms including Twitter have suspended Jionet’s accounts until January 6th. At the Capitol, he streamed live video using an additional service called DLive. He told authorities that viewers paid him $2,000 for his live broadcasts on January 5 and 6.
Under the leadership of Elon Musk, Twitter has restored accounts belonging to Gionet and other far-right figures.
Gionet, who grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, was arrested in Houston less than two weeks after the riot and imprisoned for five days. After his release, he moved from Arizona to Florida.
McFadden also ordered Gionet to pay a $2,000 fine and $500 in damages. The judge said the January 6 riot was “the climax of Gionet’s cute crime spree.”
Gionet was sentenced to 30 days in prison for a collision offense in December 2020 when authorities said he fired a pepper spray at a bar employee in Scottsdale, Arizona. Gionet was also found guilty of a felony and fined $300 for damaging a December 2020 Hanukkah display near the Arizona Capitol.
McFadden noted that Gionet recorded his crimes to attract social media followers and money.
“It’s a very unpleasant profession, sir,” the judge told him.
“If he doesn’t go to jail, he won’t stop what he’s doing,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Franks said.
Gionet initially refused to plead guilty to the January 6 charges during a previous hearing. Sullivan refused to accept Gionet’s plea in May after pleading not guilty at the start of what was to be a plea agreement hearing.
Before Gione pleaded guilty in July, Thornley told Sullivan that a protester was outside Gioneta’s Florida home and was recording a virtual hearing over the phone, in violation of court rules.
– Protest against what? the judge asked.
“I assume him as a person,” the defender replied.
