Joseph Randall Biggs (born 1983/1984) is an American veteran, media personality, organizer of the Proud Boys, and convicted felon who participated in the January 6 United States Capitol attack.
For the last of these, in 2023, he was found guilty on six criminal counts (including seditious conspiracy), and sentenced to 17 years in federal prison. He served 1.39 years before his sentence was commuted by President Trump on January 20, 2025.
Biggs was an organizer[7] and the main promoter of August 2019's End Domestic Terrorism rally in Portland, Oregon.[19] In the wake of that event, in response to Biggs' threat to return with the Proud Boys on a monthly basis, Portland MayorTed Wheeler chastized Biggs "for frightening Portlanders with the prospect of violence in the streets", and told the Floridian he was not welcome in Portland.[13]
Biggs' lawyer—J. Daniel Hull—alleged that in late July 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation approached his client and enlisted his assistance collecting on-the-ground intelligence about antifa activists.[3]
In 2021, prior to the January 6 United States Capitol attack that delayed the certification ofJoe Biden's presidential-election win, Biggs exhorted for Proud Boys to "turn out in record numbers [...] We will be blending in as one of you ... We are going to smell like you, move like you, and look like you. The only thing we'll do that's us is think like us!"[18] On January 5, via encrypted social media channels, he communicated with other members: "trying to get our numbers. So we can plan accordingly for tonight and go over tomorrow's plan. [...] info should be coming out [...] we have a plan".[21]
Outside the Capitol Building, Biggs spoke privately with Ryan Samsel, who immediately thereafter was the first person to breach the security perimeter.[10] Biggs was one of the first to breach the building itself at about 2:13p.m., 20 seconds behind Dominic Pezzola, who smashed a Senate window with a riot shield;[18] he was identified by the FBI via photos and videos taken there.[17] Biggs and other Proud Boys were wearing walkie-talkies to allow real-time communication,[18] and Biggs was recorded on video saying of the breach, "This is awesome!"[17] He later left the building, but returned 30 minutes later alongside some Oath Keepers, pushing their way past a law enforcement officer.[21]
U.S. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards testified during the Jan. 6 Committee hearings in 2022 that it was Biggs who started "turning the tables" on a handful of police officers and as they faced off with a crowd of Proud Boys and others on Jan. 6, 2021. She said Biggs, using a megaphone, led the rioters in the face off with police at a bike rack at the Peace Circle.
On January 18, Biggs admitted to the FBI that he entered the building, but claimed he neither forced his way in, nor knew about the plan to do so.[17] On the morning of January 20, 2021, he was arrested in Florida,[11] charged with knowingly entering a restricted building without lawful authority; obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding; and willfully and knowingly engaging in disorderly conduct to impede a session of Congress.[17] In Orlando court, Biggs did not enter a plea; magistrate judge Embry Kidd released him to home detention[18] with an unsecured bond of US$25,000 (equivalent to about $28,000 in 2023),[23] pending his trial in Washington, D.C.[17]
Biggs and three other Proud Boys leaders (Charles Donohoe, Ethan Nordean, and Zachary Rehl)[24] were indicted (United States of America v. Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Charles Donohoe) on March 10, 2021, charged with planning and executing the Capitol attack.[3] On March 20, and based on these new charges, federal prosecutors requested Biggs return to pre-trial detention.[21] Hull attempted to leverage Biggs' alleged prior cooperation with the FBI to keep his client out on bail.[3] Judge Timothy J. Kelly revoked his bail that April, saying, "The defendants stand charged with seeking to steal one of the crown jewels of our country, in a sense, by interfering with the peaceful transfer of power. [...] It's no exaggeration to say the rule of law and ... in the end, the existence of our constitutional republic is threatened by it."[25] In July 2021, Hull complained to Kelly that Biggs' time in the Seminole County, Florida jail was subjecting his Proud Boys client to threats of violence, exacerbating his medical problems, and complicating their defense prep due to a lack of technology.[26]
On May 4, 2023, after the three-month trial in D.C.,[29] Biggs was found guilty of seditious conspiracy; obstructing an official proceeding and criminal conspiracy thereto; conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties; interference with law enforcement during civil disorder; and destruction of government property. Judge Kelly ruled that Biggs' destruction of a fence separating rioters and police qualified the defendant for "a terrorism sentencing enhancement sought by prosecutors", who asked for a 33-year sentence. Prior to sentencing, Biggs apologized to the court, blaming his actions on personal and familial difficulties,[4] and conceded that "I know that I have to be punished and I understand".[30] On August 31, Kelly sentenced Biggs to 17 years of federalimprisonment.[4]
Two days later, Biggs told Alex Jones that his veteran's pension had been revoked, and that if Donald Trump was successful in the 2024 presidential election, "I know he'll pardon me. I believe that with all my heart". On CNN Republican Town Hall with Donald Trump, the former president said that he—if elected—would look into pardoning a "'large portion' of the Capitol riot defendants."[31] In the run up to Ohio's Republican primary for the 2024 US Senate election, incumbent senator JD Vance was trying to redefine the extent of the Capitol attack, saying that Biggs and the other men who "tore down barricades and fencing, led people into the building, and fought through officers trying to defend the building" were sentenced too harshly in comparison to other criminals.[32] On January 20, 2025, President Trump instead commuted Biggs' sentence, effective immediately; he was released from federal prison that same day (having previously been scheduled for release on December 7, 2035).[22]
^ ab"Portland rally: Far-right and antifa groups face off". BBC News. August 18, 2019. Archived from the original on August 31, 2023. Retrieved September 3, 2023. Police arrested 13 people as far-right groups rallying in the north-western US city of Portland, Oregon, skirmished with left-wing counter-protesters.
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