Anthime Gionet, 35, given two months in prison after live-streaming his participation in deadly January 6 riot. Anthime Gionet, a far-right social media personality known to followers as Baked Alaska, was sentenced on Tuesday to two months in prison for his participation in the US Capitol attack – participation he live-streamed. In court in Washington DC, the US district judge Trevor McFadden told Gionet, 35: “You did everything you could to publicise your misconduct. You were there encouraging and participating fully in what was going on.”(…) . Pretending to report a “fraudulent election”, Gionet said: “We need to get our boy, Donald J Trump, into office.” According to court documents, Gionet also told rioters: “Come in, let’s go, come on in, make yourself at home” and chanted: “Patriots are in control!” and “Whose house? Our house!” His attorney, Zachary Thornley, argued that Gionet “never crossed the line from being a protestor to a rioter” and was instead “sort of a guerrilla journalist” who was “there to document. That’s what he does.” Before becoming a star of far-right social media, Gionet worked for media website BuzzFeed. Last July, however, he pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating or picketing inside a Capitol building. Gionet has had other brushes with the law. After clashes in Arizona in late 2020, he was sentenced to 30 days in jail for misdemeanor convictions and fined for damaging a Hannukah display at the state capitol. For his participation in the Capitol riot, prosecutors recommended 75 days incarceration and three years probation. Judge McFadden, a Trump appointee who took over the case before sentencing, handed down 60 days and two years probation. Also imposing a $2,000 fine and $500 in restitution, McFadden said that for Gionet, the January 6 riot was the “culmination of a petty crime spree”.
via guardian: Far-right influencer known as ‘Baked Alaska’ sentenced over Capitol attack
