'Mr. Show' Star, Former Jimmy Pesto Jay Johnston Sentenced For Insurrection Participation
'Mr. Show' Star, Former Jimmy Pesto Jay Johnston Sentenced For Insurrection Participation
The ‘Anchorman' actor gets 12 months and a day in prison for his traitorous display
The sentencing was coup-rect, that’s that Jimmy Pesto. Actor Jay Johnston, known for his roles on Mr. Show With Bob and David, Bob’s Burgers, Moral Orel, and Mr. Pickles, was sentenced to 12 months and a day in federal prison on Monday for his participation in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Quickly identified in the days following the attempted coup, Johnston was arrested and charged in June 2023, ultimately pleading guilty this past July to a felony offense of obstructing officers during a civil disorder. In that time, his lawyer Stanley Woodward has downplayed his actions on the day and reframed the professional consequences, namely his firing from Bob’s Burgers as the voice of Jimmy Pesto Sr., as a blacklisting, and been working as a handyman ever since. As previously reported, Pesto had resurfaced last season voiced by Eric Bauza. It seems Johnston got it down from the 18 months in federal prison the prosecutors had been seeking. The sentencing memo was punctuated with a photo of Johnston in which he made light of the coup wearing a QAnon Shaman costume at a Halloween party that he attended last year.
Johnston attended a rally featuring Alex Jones the night of January 5. On the day of the riots, according to the prosecutors, Johnston spent about 10 minutes in the lower west tunnel that leads into the Capitol, one of the event’s most violent spots. They wrote "During that time, he: (1) helped at least four other rioters wash their eyes out after being sprayed with OC spray; (2) used a stolen United States Capitol Police riot shield to make a “shield wall” against the police inside the tunnel; and (3) participated in “heave-ho” push that pinned and crushed MPD Officer Daniel Hodges against a door frame.” He also filmed himself passing "AREA CLOSED" signs. Despite "his clear knowledge of, and participation in, the violence used by rioters that day," the federal prosecutors’ words say, Johnston "sent messages to friends and family in the days after January 6th claiming the events at the U.S. Capitol were exaggerated by the media and that it was a 'setup' by the police and Antifa." Very lost in the sauce, it seems.
Johnston is one of more than 1,500 people that have been arrested in connection with the Capitol attack, with federal prosecutors clinchijg the convictions of over 1,100 of those attackers so far. More than 600 convicted have been given jail sentences ranging from a few days behind bars to a Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy’s 22 years in federal prison. Who would’ve thought this week before the election would’ve ended up so political?
Source: NBC News