John Sullivan traveled to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, seeking to foment conflict with supporters of then-President Donald Trump. On Friday, he was sentenced to six years in federal prison for leading them into the Capitol, filming the shooting death of rioter Ashli Babbitt and then selling his footage to news organizations while claiming to be a journalist.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth called Sullivan a “chaos agent” unique among Jan. 6 defendants for exploiting the pro-Trump mob despite disclaiming the belief that the 2020 election was stolen.
Lamberth said, for Sullivan, “violence was an end unto itself.” And he chastised Sullivan for falsely claiming he was documenting the riot as a journalist, selling his footage to news outlets for more than $90,000.
The sentence closes one of the oddest Jan. 6 cases. Sullivan was arrested shortly after the riot, and prosecutors initially described him as a supporter of causes like “Black Lives Matter” and the anti-facism movement. His presence in the mob helped foment baseless claims of some Trump allies that the riot was sparked by anti-Trump agitators.
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