Johnston, 55, pleaded guilty to felony disturbance of the peace during a hearing Monday before U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols. Originally posted by FBI Johnston’s lawyer quickly contacted the FBI after the company posted a photo of him in March 2021 asking for help in identifying him. Johnston was subsequently fired from “Bob’s Burgers,” but wasn’t indicted until June 2023 as the Department of Justice was working through a backlog of potential cases against thousands of rioters, The Daily Beast reported in 2021.
Johnston was scheduled to be sentenced on October 7. Under his plea agreement, federal sentencing guidelines call for a sentence of eight to 14 months, but prosecutors said they would seek an increase to 12 to 18 months because Officer Daniel Hodges suffered a concussion and facial lacerations when rioters ripped off his gas mask and beat him.
“I can’t remember everything about how I was assaulted,” Hodges testified in one incident. Johnston has not been charged with assaulting police officers, but he acknowledged being part of a crowd that formed a “shield wall” using stolen police riot shields and repeatedly tried to overwhelm a group of officers guarding an entrance to the Capitol, yelling “get out!”
As of early June, more than 1,450 people had been charged with crimes at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and more than 1,040 had pleaded guilty or been convicted in court, according to the Department of Justice. The average sentence for a guilty plea to a felony is about 29 months, while the average sentence for cases where the primary charge is disturbing the peace is about eight months, according to a Washington Post database.
According to court records, Johnston was first captured on camera standing behind police barricades in Parliament Hill’s West Plaza at 2pm on January 6, filming the crowd and police on his mobile phone. After the barricades were breached by rioters, Johnston followed the crowd up the lower level of the West Terrace and into a tunnel at 3.05pm, where he was handed a stolen police riot shield, according to a statement of facts filed in court on Monday.
As rioters demanded a “wall of shields,” Johnston quickly handed his shields to the rioters in front of police and joined the mob charge that crushed Hodges, court documents state. Johnston was initially pushed back toward the tunnel entrance, but returned and rejoined the charge against the officers, leaving the area at 3:13 p.m.
Johnston voiced the character Jimmy Pesto on Fox’s “Bob’s Burgers” and also appeared regularly on HBO’s sketch comedy series “The Mr. Show with Bob and David,” starring Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, and Comedy Central’s “The Sarah Silverman Show.”
