‘Bob’s Burgers’ actor sentenced to jail for role in January 6 attack

Jay Johnston, known for his role in Bob’s Burgers, has been sentenced to 12 months in prison for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

The actor, who also had supporting roles in Arrested Development, Anchorman and Mr. Show, was arrested in June 2023 and pleaded guilty a month later to obstructing officers during a civil disorder.

The January 6, 2021 attack saw the Capitol building placed under lockdown as thousands of Donald Trump supporters clashed with police in protest at the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory in Congress. Six people died in connection with the attack.

Federal prosecutors had sought an 18-month sentence for Johnston, 56, claiming that he spent around 10 minutes in the lower west tunnel that leads into the Capitol building, and used a police riot shield to make a wall against police (via NBC News). They also claimed he took part in a “heave-ho” that pinned and crushed Officer Daniel Hodges against a door frame.

Johnston is also said to have had “clear knowledge of” the violence used by rioters that day, but “sent messages to friends and family…claiming the events at the US Capitol were exaggerated by the media and that it was a ‘setup’ by the police and Antifa”.

The actor faced a maximum of five years in prison, but was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison on Monday (October 28).

Prosecutors also noted that Johnston “made light of his participation in the riot by dressing up as Jacob Chansley, known as the ‘QAnon Shaman’, at a Halloween party that he attended” two years after the attack.

Johnston’s lawyer Stanley Woodward claimed that his client’s role in the attack had been “persistently overstated”, and suggested that “because he is an acclaimed Hollywood actor, the government is using his status to make a point to the public”.

Woodward added that Johnston has “not been able to sustain his livelihood as an actor after his involvement at the Capitol on January 6, 2021”, and claimed he had “essentially been blacklisted by Hollywood.”

The lawyer continued that Johnston had been working as a handyman for the last two years.

Johnston played Jimmy Pesto Sr. in Bob’s Burgers, the business rival to Bob who owns an Italian restaurant across the street. He also played Officer Taylor in Arrested Development and a member of the Eyewitness News Team in Anchorman.

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