Zach Rehl, former president of the Philly Proud Boys, faces a potentially record sentence for the Jan. 6 riot

»Update: Former Philly Proud Boys president Zach Rehl sentenced to 15 years for his role in Jan. 6 Capitol attack

WASHINGTON — Zach Rehl, the former head of the Philadelphia chapter of the Proud Boys, faces sentencing Thursday for his role in orchestrating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Prosecutors hope to persuade U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly to send Rehl, 37, of Port Richmond, to federal prison for 30 years, one of the longest suggested sentences so far for any of the hundreds of people charged in connection with the riot.

But Rehl maintains that he and the three other leaders of the far-right group who were convicted in May on seditious conspiracy and related charges are being persecuted for exercising their right to protest. He plans to tell the judge he didn’t anticipate the violence that erupted that day, and his lawyer has suggested a sentence of three years, which would roughly equate to the time he’s spent in custody since his 2021 arrest.

The sentencing hearing — scheduled for 2 p.m. in a Washington, D.C., courtroom just blocks from the Capitol building — is one of the most significant so far in the Jan. 6 probe, which the U.S. Justice Department has described as the largest investigation in its history.

Here’s what you need to know:

A Port Richmond native, Marine veteran, and son and grandson of Philadelphia police officers, Rehl has led Philadelphia’s chapter of the Proud Boys since at least 2018.

A federal jury convicted him in May after a four-month trial along with former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio, two other regional leaders, and a member from New York.

Prosecutors say Rehl and the others spent weeks organizing after former President Donald Trump called on his supporters to rally in Washington the day Congress was scheduled to certify electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election.

Their goal? “Unleash a force on the Capitol [to] exert their political will on elected officials by force and undo the results of a democratic election,” government lawyers said in a recent court filing.

» READ MORE: Pennsylvania Proud Boys played a big role in Jan. 6 planning: Key takeaways from Capitol riot sedition trial

Seditious conspiracy, the most serious count on which Rehl and the other Proud Boys leaders were convicted, carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. However, prosecutors have asked Kelly to stack that maximum sentence with punishments for other counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, interference with law enforcement during a civil disorder, and destruction of federal property.

They’ve also urged the judge to punish the crime as an act of terrorism — a legal distinction that would dramatically increase the suggested prison time under federal sentencing guidelines.

Without the so-called “terrorism enhancement,” those guidelines call for a sentence of roughly 10 to 14 years. With it, that figure is nearly doubled.

“The evidence in the case … underscores the sobering conclusion that the defendants’ conduct did pose a serious threat to our country on Jan. 6,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jason B.A. McCullough and Conor Mulroe wrote in a recent filing. “While the crime did not entail the kind of ‘mass casualties’ that may be present in other applications of the terrorism adjustment, the threat to our country was no less grave.”

Rehl’s lawyer, Norman Pattis, who previously represented alt-right radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, has argued that the sentence prosecutors are seeking is “draconian” and suggested solely “to capture the imagination of headline writers and partisans.”

“Mr. Rehl is [not] a terrorist. It is ridiculous to suggest so,” he wrote in a recent filing. “Respect for the law and just punishment will not be served by pretending otherwise.”

Pattis maintains that Rehl firmly, if incorrectly, believed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that he was protecting democracy by organizing the Proud Boys to protest on Jan. 6.

“Whatever excess of zeal they demonstrated … and no matter how grave the potential interference with the orderly transfer of power due to the events of that day,” Pattis wrote, “a decade or more behind bars is excessive punishment.”

A Civil War-era charge first used to prosecute Southerners who threatened to keep fighting the U.S. government, the count is the most serious accusation prosecutors have levied against any of the more than 1,000 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack.

A conviction requires prosecutors to prove that the men were seeking to overthrow the government or interfere with the execution of federal law by force.

The Justice Department has also won convictions against members of the Oath Keepers extremist group — founder Stewart Rhodes and five of his lieutenants — of the charge.

A federal judge sentenced Rhodes to 18 years in May.

Though the Oath Keepers prepared for Jan. 6 by stockpiling weapons and amassing outside of Washington in expectation that Trump would invoke the Insurrection Act and activate them as a militia, prosecutors have argued the Proud Boys’ actions were more insidious, posed a more dangerous threat, and are worthy of more significant punishment.

While the Oath Keepers were waiting for a signal from Trump, the Proud Boys, the government has argued in recent filings, effectively succeeded in riling up a crowd to take over the Capitol building unarmed.

“F — ‘em. Storm the Capitol!” Rehl was heard shouting in a cell phone video he recorded moments after the first breach of police lines.

Within minutes, according to police bodycam footage shown to jurors, Rehl sprayed a chemical irritant toward officers in his path.

» READ MORE: For Philly Proud Boys president Zach Rehl, sedition conviction for Jan. 6 attack rests largely on his own words

In the run-up to Jan. 6, Rehl was one of several leaders who organizeed the Proud Boys actions. On social media, he’d endorsed “firing squads for the traitors that are trying to steal the election.”

They hatched a plan to disguise their own involvement by eschewing the Proud Boys’ usual rally colors and “riling up the normies” — or civilians — to frustrate Congress’ certification vote that day.

Rehl made it into the Capitol building, posing for selfies with other members of the Philadelphia Proud Boys chapter and smoking cigarettes as rioters caroused in the offices of U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D., Ore.)

Once the riot was quelled, Rehl expressed regret that the mob hadn’t succeeded in taking the building.

“Looking back, it sucked,” he texted other members of the Philadelphia Proud Boys chapter on Jan. 7. “We should have held the Capitol … Everyone shoulda showed up armed and took the country back the right way.”

Testifying in his own defense at trial, Rehl told the jury: “If you believe I did anything wrong that day, I really do truly apologize.”

Prosecutors are also seeking stiff sentences against the other Proud Boys leaders.

They say Tarrio, who is expected to be sentenced Tuesday, should spend 33 years behind bars as should Joseph Biggs, a Proud Boys leader from Florida who is scheduled for sentencing Thursday.

They’re recommending 27 years for Ethan Nordean, a chapter leader from Washington, and 20 for Dominic Pezzola, a Proud Boys member from New York who was convicted alongside the others of less-serious felonies but acquitted of the sedition charge. Both men are set for sentencing Friday.

In addition, three other Philadelphia Proud Boys were charged with illegally entering the Capitol. One — Isaiah Giddings, 31, of Philadelphia — has pleaded guilty.

The other two — Freedom Vy, 37, of Philadelphia, and Brian Healion, 33, of Upper Darby — have entered not guilty pleas and are awaiting trial.