WASHINGTON — A Hollywood actor who had supporting roles in “Anchorman,” “Mr. Show,” “Arrested Development” and “Bob’s Burgers” was sentenced to 12 months and a day in federal prison on Monday for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, his lawyer said.
Jay Johnston was arrested in June 2023 and pleaded guilty in July to a felony offense of obstructing officers during a civil disorder. Johnston had long been identified as a participant in the chaos even before his arrest, and some of the professional consequences — including no longer being featured as a voice “Bob’s Burgers” — hit long before the legal repercussions.
Federal prosecutors had sought 18 months in federal prison for Johnston, topping their sentencing memo off with a photo of Johnson in which he “made light of his participation in the riot by dressing up as Jacob Chansley, known as the ‘QAnon Shaman,’ at a Halloween party that he attended” two years after the attack.
Prosecutors said that on Jan. 6, 2021, Johnston spent about 10 minutes in the lower west tunnel that leads into the Capitol, where some of the worst violence of the attack took place. “During that time, he: (1) helped at least four other rioters wash their eyes out after being sprayed with OC spray; (2) used a stolen United States Capitol Police riot shield to make a “shield wall” against the police inside the tunnel; and (3) participated in “heave-ho” push that pinned and crushed MPD Officer Daniel Hodges against a door frame,” federal prosecutors wrote.
Despite “his clear knowledge of, and participation in, the violence used by rioters that day,” federal prosecutors wrote, Johnston “sent messages to friends and family in the days after January 6th claiming the events at the U.S. Capitol were exaggerated by the media and that it was a ‘setup’ by the police and Antifa.”
Johnston’s lawyer, Stanley Woodward, wrote in a sentencing memo that the government has “persistently overstated” Johnston’s role in the attack “because he is an acclaimed Hollywood actor, and the government is using his status to make a point to the public.”
Johnston had “found great success in Hollywood as an actor, writer, and producer including accolades for his role as the voice actor for Jimmy Pesto, Sr. in the animated series Bob’s Burgers and as Officer Taylor in Arrested Development,” wrote Woodward. But Johnston “has not been able to sustain his livelihood as an actor after his involvement at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
Johnston has “essentially been blacklisted by Hollywood” and “has worked as a handyman for the last two years – an obvious far cry from his actual expertise and livelihood in film and television,” Woodward wrote.
In messages ahead of the attack, Johnston wrote to an acquaintance to “Bring food and a toilet” to what he referred to as “the gala affair” on Jan. 6, prosecutors said.
Johnston later wrote, in response to a question about whether he was going “to rally,” that he was going “going to rally, really, rally.”
Johnston attended another rally featuring conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and others on the night before the Capitol attack and then filmed himself passing “AREA CLOSED” signs on Jan. 6, prosecutors wrote.
Johnston’s video confirms he heard the sound of flashbangs in the distance and he’s heard noting the police presence at the Capitol before he used an overturned metal bike rack to advance over a stone wall, prosecutors said. He then filmed rioters pushing a metal “Trump” billboard toward the police line, commented to others that the police were macing rioters and then filmed rioters “fighting the police by pushing bike racks against them, trying to break their police line,” prosecutors said.
Once he advanced to the lower west tunnel, prosecutors said, Johnston handled a stolen police shield and then “joined a group push effort, referred to as ‘heave-ho,’ against the police in the tunnel” during which Officer Hodges “was crushed between the frame of one of the doors in the tunnel and the crowd.”
Johnston “joked as rioters attacked the police,” prosecutors wrote, including remarking, “Okay! We’re going to get those light bulbs fixed!” as rioters “pushed an orange ladder at the police in the tunnel.”
More than 1,500 people have been arrested in connection with the Capitol attack, and federal prosecutors have secured the convictions of over 1,100 defendants so far. More than 600 of those convicted have been sentenced to periods of incarceration ranging from a few days behind bars to 22 years in federal prison, for a Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Additional arrests took place last week, including numerous rioters charged with assaulting officers during the attack.
