A former member of the far-right Proud Boys group from Aurora has been sentenced to more than three years in federal prison for his assault on officers during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The sentence handed down to James Robert Elliott, 25, on Thursday is the harshest dealt so far to an Illinois resident charged in the riot. In addition to the 37-month prison sentence, Elliott must also pay $2,000 in restitution, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C.
A federal grand jury indicted Elliott in December 2021. He pleaded guilty nearly a year later to assaulting, resisting or impeding officers.
Elliott bragged about being promoted to the Proud Boys’ highest rank of membership after the Capitol breach, prosecutors have alleged. However, Elliott wrote in a recent letter to the judge that he has “left the Proud Boys” and has done his best to move his life “in a positive direction after being arrested.”
Defense attorney James Welsh wrote that Elliott joined the Proud Boys “to find like-minded people he could converse with,” and later offered to cooperate with the feds against the group. But Elliott did not have useful information to offer, so Welsh alleged that prosecutors then chose to “use his Proud Boy affiliation against him.”
The group has described itself as a “pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world, aka Western Chauvinists,” according to prosecutors. Leader Enrique Tarrio and three other members were convicted last month of a plot to attack the Capitol to keep Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 presidential election.
Elliott explained in his letter that, in the days after the riot, he was “filled with frustration, at the government, at Trump, at law-enforcement and also at myself.
“I didn’t know what was true and what wasn’t,” Elliott wrote. “So much chatter was going on in and outside of my head I didn’t know what to believe, as time went on and more info came to the surface I became more apprehensive of what actually happened and I began siding more with people that were against what happened.”
Elliott now works as a tow truck driver to help support his wife, two small children and other family members, court records show.
But back on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors say Elliott “seemed to view himself as the star of a war movie,” repeatedly uttering a cry from the movie “300” during the Capitol riot.
He yelled, “Patriots, what is your occupation? AAH-OOH, AAH-OOH, AAH-OOH!”
Elliott wore a helmet, goggles, a ballistic vest, hard-knuckle gloves, a radio and a Thor’s hammer pendant, records show. The feds have noted that he dressed almost entirely in black, just as a leader of the Proud Boys suggested members of the group might do.
Welsh wrote that Elliott was simply “dressed in his typical rally gear” out of concern that he might run into members of the Antifa movement. They had thrown rocks and other objects at Elliott during previous rallies, Welsh claimed.
Elliott also carried toward the Capitol a U.S. flag on a pole that featured the words “We the People,” as well as a Greek phrase that translates roughly to “Come and take them,” according to the feds. Elliott thrust that flagpole into the air as he urged a crowd forward and yelled his “Patriots” mantra, records show.
A short time later, as rioters tried to break through a barrier, Elliott swung his flagpole at officers at least twice.
The first time, Elliott swung the flagpole in a downward motion, records show. Then, he thrust the pole forward into a police line, striking an officer.
Elliott’s advance on the Capitol was ultimately interrupted when he was repelled by gas, records show.
Still, later that night, Elliott allegedly expressed anger toward Trump in videos on the social media app Telegram for not fighting harder to remain in office.
“Trump just said … that the people in D.C. don’t represent America,” Elliott allegedly said. “We f---ing took the Capitol Building for this motherf---er, and he has the gall to say that we don’t represent America. … And then the motherf---er bends over and lets Biden stick his f---ing shoes in his a--- and kicks him out of the f---ing White House. Whatever happened to ‘you refuse to concede no matter the results? … We f---ing fought for him, we took the f---ing Capitol for him, and then he f---ing concedes to Biden!”
