An Aurora man who was an admitted member of the far-right group Proud Boys was sentenced Thursday to more than three years in federal prison for using a flagpole to assault officers trying to hold back the violent mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, then later bragging in a text message that he’d “bonked 2 cops.”
The 37-month sentence handed to James Robert Elliott in U.S. District Court in Washington marked the stiffest term for any of the more than three dozen Illinoisans charged so far in the Capitol breach.
Elliott, 25, who also goes by “Jim Bob,” was charged in 2021 with six counts, including civil disorder, assault of a federal officer, entering a restricted building with a dangerous weapon and carrying out an act of violence on Capitol grounds.
He pleaded guilty in November to a single count of assault, admitting in a plea agreement that he’d met up in Washington for a speech by then-President Donald Trump and later marched with fellow Proud Boys on the Capitol.
In asking for a sentenced of up to 3 1/2 years behind bars, federal prosecutors revealed in a recent court filing that Elliott’s actions on Jan. 6 “caught his fellow Proud Boys’ attention” and he found himself quickly nominated for the highest degree of membership in the neo-fascist organization.
“PB is calling me lord Jimbob and (expletive), and I’m getting nominated for a 4th degree,” Elliott texted to an friend in 2021, according to the prosecution filing.
In asking for leniency, Elliott wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth saying, “I have since left the Proud Boys and I’m doing my best to continue to move my life in a positive direction after being arrested.”
“It was NEVER my intention to hurt anyone and the fact that i may have done just that in the heat of the moment brings no end of shame and regret to me,” his letter stated.
His attorney, James Welsh, said Elliott was a naïve young man who was “frustrated and fed up with what was happening in America” and went to Washington to “see his President speak,” not to harm anyone or try to overthrow the government.
“His backpack was full of medical supplies, not weapons, to assist the injured,” Welsh wrote.
According to his plea, Elliott traveled from Aurora to Washington on the day before the attack with the intention to “protest” the certification of the Electoral College results from the 2020 presidential election.
On the morning of Jan. 6, Elliott marched with other Proud Boys members from the Washington Monument to the Capitol grounds while wearing a ballistic vest, hard-knuckle gloves, and a radio and carrying carried an American flag with a wooden pole, according to the plea.
Elliott passed barriers and crossed into the restricted area on the west side of the Capitol, then donned a helmet, faced the crowd and thrust the flag in the air, yelling, “Patriots, what is your occupation? Ah-ooh! Ah-ooh! Ah-ooh!” a phrase inspired by a battle cry from the movie “300,” according to the plea.
A few minutes later, as officers sought to replace bicycle-rack barriers holding back the mob, Elliott “swung his flagpole” at officers and “then thrust the flagpole forward into the police line,” making contact with one officer, the plea stated.
Elliott then ran to the base of some inauguration scaffolding, where he repeated the war cry. He was “repelled by gas before he was able to proceed through the scaffolding” and did not advance further toward the Capitol Building, the plea stated.
Later, Elliott sent text messages bragging about how his “rally cry” energized the crowd, according to the plea.
“Oh dude wana know one more two thing? I bonked 2 cops,” Elliott wrote in one text, according to the plea. “Never thought I’d say that lol.”
Elliott was arrested in west suburban Batavia on Dec. 20, 2021. At detention hearing in Chicago’s federal court, prosecutors said agents found bear spray in Elliott’s backpack when executing a search warrant on his home.
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Video footage from the Capitol riot showed Elliott carrying the American flag on a pole emblazoned with a Greek phrase that translates to “Come and take them,” a phrase “commonly used by individuals and groups as an anti-government rallying cry,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Bond said at the time.
As the crowd surges toward police chanting “Four more years!” and attempting to break through some metal barriers, Elliott allegedly can be seen swinging the flagpole in a downward motion at police causing at least one glancing blow on an officer’s head. Elliott then turns the flagpole and “thrusts” it horizontally toward an officer’s face, Bond said.
“The cops are getting sprayed, there’s a (expletive) fight right here!” the person shooting the video yells.
Elliott was among at least 38 Illinoisans charged so far in the Capitol breach.
The ongoing investigation has been described by prosecutors as the largest criminal investigation in the country’s history. To date, more than 1,000 people from across the country have been arrested, including nearly 350 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Unlike Elliott, most of those arrested in Illinois have faced only misdemeanor charges alleging they illegally entered the Capitol, but were not violent or destructive, and so far only a handful have faced any jail time.
