A regional Oath Keepers organizer who pleaded guilty to a Capitol attack felony last year was sentenced Friday to 36 months of probation, the first six months of which will be served as home detention.
James Breheny was a Bergen County, New Jersey-based organizer with the Oath Keepers, the far-right militia group that played a key role in the physical breach of Congress and menacing of lawmakers. As part of a guilty plea last year, Breheny acknowledged that he entered the Capitol in part to aid the attempt to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Prior to that plea, he faced several more charges, including violent entry into the Capitol and related crimes.
Breheny was among those who communicated with other militia members before the attack, though prosecutors said he did not actively plan the attack with them and was not involved in discussions that concerned planning for violence, which was why he was not charged with conspiring with others.
However, prosecutors did say he “joined the mob outside the East Rotunda Doors that forced entry into the Capitol, and thus participated in violence” on Jan. 6, 2021. They also acknowledged the “fulsome, credible, and relevant” information he provided about other criminal defendants, including the leader of the Oath Keepers and other members, and said he was “cooperative and truthful” with law enforcement starting just days after the attack.
In court Friday, U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta, who’s handled a number of Capitol attack cases including that of Oath Keepers founder and leader Stewart Rhodes, said Breheny was the first Oath Keepers member who’d come before him in that “posture.”
“And you deserve some credit for it,” the judge said. (Breheny is no longer a member of the Oath Keepers.)
Mehta stressed that there was “some risk” involved with Breheny cooperating against the militia members, and he emphasized comments earlier in the hearing from…
Read the full article here
