WASHINGTON — A veteran comedian with roles on “Mr. Show,” “Arrested Development,” “Bob’s Burgers” and “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” has pleaded guilty in connection with his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Jay Johnston, wearing a gray suit, pleaded guilty to a felony offense of obstructing officers during a civil disorder. “Guilty,” Johnson said when asked by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols how he pleaded. Nichols set a sentencing hearing for Oct. 7 at 10 a.m., asking federal prosecutors to turn in their sentencing memo by Sept. 30 and the defense to turn theirs in by Oct. 3.
After his arrest, Johnston was indicted by a federal grand jury alongside four other Jan. 6 defendants; the government alleged that all five men took part in the battle at the lower west tunnel leading into the Capitol, where some of the worst rioter-on-law-enforcement violence took place on Jan. 6.
The FBI alleged that video footage showed Johnston “handing up a stolen U.S. Capitol police shield to other rioters” and that Johnston “participated with other rioters in a group assault” on the officers protecting the lower west tunnel.
Johnston was listed as No. 247 on the FBI’s Capitol Violence website, where the bureau posts photos of some of its most wanted rioters from the Capitol attack. The FBI said that a lawyer representing Johnston called the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center in March 2021 to identify him. The bureau said it spoke with three of Johnston’s associates, one of whom provided the FBI with a text message confirming his presence at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“The news has presented it as an attack. It actually wasn’t. Thought it kind of turned into that,” Johnston wrote in that text message. “It was a mess. Got maced and tear gassed and I found it quite untastic.”
Johnston faced professional backlash long before he was charged in connection with the attack: The character he voiced on “Bob’s Burgers,” Jimmy Pesto Sr., was written off the show because of Johnston’s involvement in storming the Capitol, the Daily Beast reported in December 2021.
Earlier in his Hollywood career, Johnston had regularly portrayed police officers, including on “The Sarah Silverman Show” and “Arrested Development.” Johnston is also known for his role in Mr. Show’s “The Story of Everest” sketch, where he played a man who repeatedly fell into shelves of thimbles on the wall after returning home from climbing Mount Everest and trying to tell the story of the climb. Johnston also played a member of Wes Mantooth’s news crew during the epic battle scene in “Anchorman.”
In the more than 3.5 years since the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the FBI has made more than 1,400 arrests and secured more than 1,000 convictions. While hundreds of low-level Jan. 6 defendants have been sentenced to probation, more than 540 prison sentences have been handed out ranging from a few days behind bars to 22 years in federal prison for Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy.
The Supreme Court’s recent ruling about the obstruction of an official proceeding charge used against hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants is expected to have a ripple effect in many of those cases. The government has less than a year and a half to charge hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters who have been identified by online sleuths (but haven’t been arrested by the FBI) before the statute of limitations expires in early 2026.
