A bartender from Washington, DC who was one of the first people to breach the Capitol during the January 6th Republican-led domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol and came face-to-face with Capitol Police and DC officers protecting Congress has been sentenced to 55 months in prison, the Washington Post reports.

Pruitt came literally within feet of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who was being escorted to safety by his security detail.  At one point, Schumer’s group turned a corner to see Pruitt and others just a few steps down the hall.  They turned Schumer around and headed to a safe location before Pruitt got within 30 feet of the senator.

Forty-year-old Joshua Pruitt stated in an encrypted chat weeks before the Capitol attack that he wanted to become a full-fledged member of the Proud Boys, the far-right ultranationalist groups whose members have been charged with seditious conspiracy for their part on the January 6th attack.  “I just want to do whatever needs to be done to be legit,” Pruitt told the other members of the chat group. 

Although he did break into the building and roamed its halls, Pruitt never attacked the police officers working to protect the building, prosecutors admit.  While he did act confrontational, he did not physically assault police or security teams.  That wasn’t the same for everyone:  while walking through the Capitol, Pruitt confronted another group of attackers coming from a different direction and ended up throwing at chair at them at the Capitol Visitors Center.

Saying Pruitt was “at the forefront of the mob,” U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly told Pruitt, “You were acting somewhat in concert with others, engaged in planning to some degrees with others. … You did get into the building early, you did penetrate deeply into the building, you did damage property, you played a role in amping up the crowd, you did get very close to one of our national leaders.”

Pruitt says he’s upset because he has been blackballed from working in DC area restaurants after his arrest, but he still hold on to the belief that led him to attack the Capitol January 6th, telling the judge, “I did believe the election was stolen. I still do.”