The
front door of Comet Ping Pong pizza shop, in Washington, Monday,
Dec. 5, 2016.
Associated Press/Jose
Luis Magana
(Mic) — Edgar Maddison Welch, the North Carolina man
persuaded to storm a Washington, D.C., pizza place by an internet
rumor that it hid a Democrat-run pedophile ring, was sentenced to
four years in prison on Thursday, the Washington Post
reports.
Welch apologized to the victims and the people of
Washington, D.C., for his entering Comet Ping Pong with a loaded
AR-15 military-style rifle.
He requested an 18-month sentence before eventually begin
given four years, just below the four-and-a-half years
prosecutors sought.
“Pizzagate” began as an internet conspiracy theory before
it ended in
gunshots in the D.C. pizzeria
. In
March 2016,
protesting families
came from as
far as Canada and California to march in Washington to demand the
truth about Comet Ping Pong be outed. The internet rumors alleged
that Democrats, including
Hillary
Clinton
, were running a child sex-slavery ring
out of the establishment. Clinton’s campaign manager, John
Podesta, sometimes dined there.
James Alefantis, Comet Ping Pong’s owner, appeared in court
to attest to the “physical terror” Welch’s invasion caused. He
added that he hoped that “one day in a more truthful time we will
remember this day as an aberration.”
Welch wrote in a letter to U.S. District Judge Ketanji
Brown that he was “truly sorry” for endangering the safety of
those present and that he now realized how “foolish and reckless”
his decision was.
Prosecutors told the judge that a “significant sentence is
required” to deter others from seeking vigilante justice “based
only on their YouTube feed,” according to the
Post.
Welch hatched his plan to enter Comet Ping Pong after
watching videos furthering conspiracies about the pizzeria,
the
Post
reported. Several
friends warned Welch not to act or do “something stupid.”
Infowars
host Alex Jones, who
garnered headlines earlier this week for his
NBC interview with Megyn
Kelly
,
furthered the conspiracy theory
on his radio show.
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