Jay Johnston, comedian from “Anchorman” and “Mr. Show', convicted in the attack on the Capitol on January 6th

WASHINGTON — A Hollywood actor who has had supporting roles in “Anchorman,” “Mr. Show,” “Arrested Development” and “Bob's Burgers,” was sentenced Monday to 12 months and one day in prison for his role in “The January 6th Movie” attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Jay Johnston was arrested in June 2023 and pleaded guilty in July to felony obstructing officers during a disturbance. Johnston had long been identified as a participant in the mayhem before his arrest, and some of the professional consequences – including his no longer appearing as a voice on “Bob's Burgers” – occurred long before the legal consequences.

Federal prosecutors had sought an 18-month sentence in federal prison for Johnston, rounding out their sentencing memorandum with a photograph of Johnston “making light of his participation in the insurrection by identifying himself as Jacob Chansley, known as the 'QAnon Shaman,' in disguise,” a Halloween party he attended two years after the attack.

Prosecutors said that on Jan. 6, 2021, Johnston spent about 10 minutes in the lower west tunnel leading into the Capitol, where some of the worst violence of the attack took place. “During this time, he (1) helped at least four other rioters wash out their eyes after being sprayed with OC spray; (2) used a stolen United States Capitol Police riot shield to create a “protective wall” against police inside the tunnel; and (3) engaged in a “heave-ho” push that pinned and crushed MPD Officer Daniel Hodges against a door frame,” federal prosecutors wrote.

Despite “his clear knowledge of and involvement in the violence perpetrated by the rioters that day,” federal prosecutors wrote, “in the days following January 6, Johnston sent messages to friends and family claiming that the events in the U.S Capitol were exaggerated by the media and that it was an “intrigue” by the police and Antifa.”

Johnston's attorney, Stanley Woodward, wrote in a sentencing memo that the government had “persistently overstated” Johnston's role in the attack “because he is an acclaimed Hollywood actor and the government is using his status to tell the public.”

Johnston “had great success in Hollywood as an actor, writer and producer, including awards for his roles as the voice of Jimmy Pesto Sr. in the animated series Bob's Burgers and as Officer Taylor in Arrested Development,” Woodward wrote. But Johnston “could no longer make a living as an actor following his engagement at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.”

Johnston has been “essentially blacklisted from Hollywood” and “has been working as a handyman for the past two years – obviously far removed from his actual expertise and livelihood in film and television,” Woodward wrote.

In messages before the attack, Johnston wrote to an acquaintance on Jan. 6 to “bring food and a toilet” in what he described as a “gala affair,” prosecutors said.

Johnston later wrote, in response to a question about whether he would “go to the rally,” that he would “really go to a rally, really, a rally.”

Johnston attended another rally with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and others the evening before the attack on the Capitol, then filmed himself passing “AREA CLOSED” signs on Jan. 6, prosecutors wrote.

Johnston's video confirms that he heard stun grenades in the distance and noticed the police presence at the Capitol before using an overturned metal bike rack to climb over a stone wall, prosecutors said. He then filmed rioters pushing a metal “Trump” billboard toward the police line, commented to others that police were taking down rioters, and then filmed rioters “fighting the police by pushing and trying to push bike racks against them.” “To break through their police line,” said the public prosecutor.

As he advanced toward the lower west tunnel, according to prosecutors, Johnston handled a stolen police shield and “then joined a group referred to as the 'Heave-Ho' against police in the tunnel,” with Officer Hodges being “knocked down” between the frame one of the doors in the tunnel and the crowd.

Johnston “was joking as rioters attacked police,” prosecutors wrote, noting, among other things: “Okay! We're going to get these light bulbs fixed!” as rioters “pushed an orange ladder toward police in the tunnel.”

More than 1,500 people have been arrested in connection with the attack on the Capitol, and federal prosecutors have so far secured the convictions of over 1,100 defendants. More than 600 of those convicted received sentences ranging from a few days behind bars to 22 years in federal prison because a Proud Boys leader was convicted of seditious conspiracy.

More arrests were made last week, including scores of rioters accused of assaulting officers during the attack.