Judge gives SC man affiliated with Proud Boys 28 months in prison for making threats

A federal judge Tuesday sentenced a Lexington County man who was at the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and was an affiliate of the Proud Boys to 28 months in prison for making interstate phone calls to threaten a former federal prosecutor.

Defendant James “Jimmy” Giannakos, 47, was not making “idle threats” when he made six menacing phone calls to Florida telephone numbers because the object of his threats, a former federal prosecutor, had been quoted in a nationally distributed news story about Proud Boys leader Enrique Torrio, said U.S. District Judge Terry Wooten during a two-hour morning hearing at the federal courthouse in Columbia.

“Anyone who heard these threats would be frightened and afraid,” Wooten told Giannakos just before he gave the defendant two years and four months in prison.

Earlier at the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Elliott Daniels urged Wooten to give Giannakos a sentence at the upper range of the federal court guidelines of 24-30 months in prison.

“There are groups that oppose by force and violence the authority of the United States,” Daniels said, referring to the Proud Boys, an extremist group some of whose members have been charged with committing violent acts in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

The conduct of Giannakos was “part of an ideology that opposed authority,” Daniels said, urging the judge to impose a stiff sentence to send a message to anyone who would want to threaten a federal prosecutor for doing his or her job.

Although Giannakos’ public defender attorney, Allen Burnside, described Giannakos’ six phone calls as an “impulsive” act prompted by lack of sleep and alcohol, Giannakos made his threatening phone calls 22 days after the Capitol riot, a passage of time that had allowed most Americans to realize how dangerous the riot was to the nation’s democratic traditions, Daniels said.

When he made the threats, Giannakos had not come to any realization of how much he was defying the system of law and order on which the nation is based, Daniels said. Also, Daniels said, Giannakos “had tried to join” or was a member of the Proud Boys as well as the Oath Keepers, another rightist militia group.

New evidence brought up at hearing

New evidence surfacing at Tuesday’s hearing included:

▪ For the first time, the victim in Giannakos’ case spoke publicly. The former federal prosecutor and the object of Giannakos’ threats, spoke at the hearing via a remote telephone link and was referring to as Victim 1. She was not identified.

In a clear, firm voice, Victim 1 told the court about her background as a seasoned prosecutor who for 10 years had handled human trafficking, violent crime and sex crimes against children cases.

“I’m a pretty tough cookie,” she said. “My job and my background has given me a pretty thick skin.”

But Giannakos threatened her children as well as her, she said, explaining she has three children under the age of 10 and also made repeated threats against members of the law firm where she now works, she said.

The threats caused her to install a sophisticated security system at her home and have an FBI and police guard for a month, she said.

Moreover, in early February, two FBI agents were killed in Miami, adding to the fear she and her family were feeling. “Mere threats aren’t mere threats any more,” she said, urging the judge to give a stiff sentence. “Threats are real — people act on them.”

Also, said Victim 1, Giannakos had his facts wrong — she had not exposed Proud Boys leader Torrio as an FBI informant. She had only confirmed to a Reuters reporter that a transcript of an 8-year-old federal court hearing in which Torrio’s role was discussed was an accurate transcript.

▪ Giannakos was outside the Capitol building during the Jan. 6 riot but did not enter the building, and there is no evidence that he assaulted any officer. He did gather up and take from Washington to his Lexington County house in Gilbert a police body camera, a Capitol police riot shield and a police hat. The FBI found those items during a Feb. 3 search of his home when they went to arrest him for threatening the former federal prosecutor.

▪ Giannakos “was excited about being part of something, which was the ‘Stop the Steal’ campaign,” defense attorney Burnside told the judge. He had learned about that campaign, based on false claims that the Nov. 3 presidential election was “stolen” from President Trump from reading things on the internet, Burnside said. “That is how he got involved in this thing.” After his arrest, Giannakos immediately confessed, expressed remorse and offered to plead guilty. “He thought he was going to a rally, and it turned into a riot,” Burnside said.

▪ Giannakos’s wife, Sabrina Cubera, and mother, Jean Mason, spoke separately, telling the judge about the defendant’s good qualities. Those qualities include being a caring neighbor, friend and relative to numerous people in his community, they said. He is particularly good with animals, taking them in, taking care of them and getting to places where they can be cared for. He has also helped the families of friends and relatives when they were dealing with someone stricken with a fatal disease, they said.

“He is really not the criminal he is made out to be,” Mason told the judge. Her family comes from a long line of veterans and law officers and she wanted the judge to know how sorry they all are.

Giannakos, a self-employed home repairman and security system installer, attended Lexington High School through the 10th grade and has a GED diploma, also spoke.

“What I did was immature and unnecessary and completely wrong,” Giannakos said, apologizing to Victim 1. “I never wanted to scare anyone.... I want to assure everyone that nothing like this will ever happen again.”

What brought Giannakos to the FBI’s attention were threatening interstate phone calls he made in late January — several weeks after the riot — from a South Carolina phone number to a Florida law firm where the former federal prosecutor worked. It became a federal case because Giannakos made the calls across state lines.

FBI traced phone calls to defendant

During the calls, Giannakos left threatening messages on voice mail and his telephone number was recorded on the Florida telephones — information that led the FBI straight to Giannakos, according to evidence in the case. In the calls, he also identified himself as “James.”

That prosecutor (Victim 1) became the target of Giannakos’s wrath because she was quoted as confirming news reports that Proud Boys leader Tarrio had once been a valuable confidential informant for the FBI in drug cases, according to federal court records.

The news reports were based on a transcript of a 2014 public court hearing where the former federal prosecutor, then an assistant U.S. Attorney in Florida, an FBI agent. and Tarrio’s defense attorney all discussed before a judge Tarrio’s role as a confidential informant for the FBI.

One telephone message for the former prosecutor left by Giannakos said, in part, “If anything happens to Mr. Enrique Tarrio, the same thing will happen to you and your family. ... If anything happens to him, I promise you and your associates will pay for it,” according to court records.

In a warrant in the Giannakos case, the FBI described the Proud Boys as “an extremist right-wing group that has gained a reputation for leading protests that often turned violent in cities such as Washington, D.C., and Portland, Oregon.” They are an all-male, white organization often linked to white supremacy, according to numerous news accounts.

Since the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, more than 20 Proud Boys have been arrested by the FBI and are facing various charges included illegally being in the Capitol and interfering with government operations.

The items seized at Giannakos’ house in Gilbert during an FBI raid in early February show “probable cause” that he “participated in the capital riots of Jan. 6, 2021,” according to FBI search warrant documents.

Seized items include a Capitol Police riot shield alleged to have been taken during the riot, pepper spray, a Washington, D.C., subway map, guns and Proud Boys literature, according to court documents.

Hundreds charged in Capitol riot

Since the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, some 465 individuals have been arrested on charges of illegally entering the Congressional complex, including over 130 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.

On that day, thousands of people inspired by false claims made by then-President Trump that Democrats had committed widespread election fraud, converged on the U.S. Capitol to protest a formal vote-counting effort by the House and Senate to formalize then President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

Many hundreds of that crowd broke through police lines and entered the Capitol, forcing members of Congress to flee. More than 140 police from the Capitol and Washington D.C. police departments were injured, one officer died and two officers later died by suicide, according to news reports.

On June 15, FBI director Christopher Wray told a House committee that the FBI has “hundreds” of additional ongoing investigations into other people suspected of committing illegal acts at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Giannakos had hoped to get a sentence between 10 and 16 months in prison for using a telephone to make a threat across state lines, according to court records.

Since he has been in a local jail five months awaiting sentencing , those five months will count as part of his 28-month sentence.

So far, seven South Carolinians have been arrested on charges linked to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Earlier this month, a Hanahan couple, John Getsinger Jr. and Stacie Hargis-Getsinger, of Hanahan, were arraigned Tuesday afternoon in Charleston before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Gordon Baker in a initial proceeding where they were presented with the charges against them.

The five other South Carolinians facing charges in the Capitol riot and against whom charges are pending are:

▪ Elias Irizarry, 19, a freshman at the Citadel military college in Charleston.

▪ Elliott Bishai, 20, a York County man planning to enter the U.S. Army in the next few months.

▪ William Norwood III, of Greer, who is charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority, violent and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, obstruction of justice and theft of government property.

▪ Andrew Hatley, who is charged with “uttering threatening, or abusive language, or engag(ing) in disorderly or disruptive conduct, at any place in the Grounds or in any of the Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, or disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress or either House of Congress.” He is also charged with engaging disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

▪ Nicholas Languerand, 26, of Little River, is charged with assaulting an officer using a deadly weapon, according to a review of charging documents.

This story was originally published June 29, 2021 at 2:42 PM with the headline "Judge gives SC man affiliated with Proud Boys 28 months in prison for making threats."