Actor JAY JOHNSTON facing prison time after admitting his role in Capitol riots

Tuesday, July 09, 2024 - American comic actor, Jay Johnston, who appeared in Anchorman and Arrested Development is facing up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to interfering with police officers during the US Capitol riots.

Johnston, who also voiced pizzeria owner Jimmy Pesto in the animated sitcom Bob's Burgers, is one of more than 1,400 people who have been charged with crimes related to the violence in Washington DC on 6 January 2021.

Video footage captured the 55-year-old pushing against police and helping rioters during the disorder at the Lower West tunnel leading into the Capitol.

Johnston, from Los Angeles, was "close to the entrance to the tunnel, turned back and signalled for other rioters to come towards the entrance", according to an FBI agent's affidavit.

He also held a stolen police shield over his head and passed it to other rioters during the attack, the affidavit adds.

The attack on January 6 2021 intended to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 presidential election.

A court filing accompanying Johnston's plea agreement says he used his mobile phone to record rioters as they broke through barricades and sent police officers retreating.

Three current or former associates of Johnston identified him as a riot suspect from photos that the FBI published online, according to the agent.

The FBI said one of those associates provided investigators with a text message in which Johnston acknowledged being at the Capitol on the day of the riots.

"The news has presented it as an attack. It actually wasn't. Thought it kind of turned into that. It was a mess. Got maced and tear gassed and I found it quite untastic," Johnston wrote, according to the FBI.

The actor, who was arrested in June last year, faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison after pleading guilty to civil disorder.

He is due to be sentenced on the 7th of October.