Due to his involvement in the January 6 US Capitol riots, a Hollywood actor best known for his parts in Anchorman and Mr. Show has been sentenced.
On Monday, Jay Johnston, who also starred in supporting parts in Bob’s Burgers and Arrested Development, received a 12-month and one-day term in federal prison.
The Chicago resident, 56, was taken into custody in June 2023 and entered a guilty plea in July to the felony charge of impeding law enforcement during a civil disturbance.
Long before his involvement had legal ramifications, he was removed from Bob’s Burgers as a featured voice actor.
Federal prosecutors, who had requested an 18-month term, cited a picture of him “dressing up as Jacob Chansley, known as the ‘QAnon Shaman'” at a Halloween party two years after the incident in their sentencing memo.
According to the prosecution, on January 6, 2021, Johnston spent roughly ten minutes in the lower west tunnel that goes into the Capitol.
He was charged with assisting “at least four other rioters” in wiping their eyes after being doused with pepper spray during that period.
Promotion
Additionally, he was charged with participating in a “heave-ho” push that crushed officer Daniel Hodges against a door frame and creating a “shield wall” against the police using a stolen riot shield.
Johnston, 29, “sent messages to friends and family in the days after 6 January claiming the events at the US Capitol were exaggerated by the media” , according to prosecutors.
The prosecution had “persistently overstated” Johnston’s involvement in the attack “because he is an acclaimed Hollywood actor,” according to his attorney Stanley Woodward.
Johnston “had not been able to sustain his livelihood as an actor” and had “essentially been blacklisted by Hollywood,” according to a sentencing document written by Mr. Woodward.
In relation to the Capitol attack, almost 1,500 persons have been detained, 1,100 of them have been found guilty.
Of those found guilty, almost 600 have received sentences that range from a few days in jail to 22 years in federal prison.
