J6 defendant with ties to white supremacist groups sentenced to nearly five years in prison

South Carolina January 6 defendant Tyler Dykes, who also attended the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was sentenced to almost five years in prison on Friday.

Dykes has been accused of holding white supremacist ideologies after he appeared to raise a Nazi salute at the top of the Capitol steps during the Capitol riot in 2021. Dykes also ripped down fencing around the Capitol that helped the mob of rioters advance, and yanked a riot shield from a Capitol police officer.

The rioter was sentenced to 57 months in prison, and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine, per Politico.

“We fought a world war to beat back the Nazis,” U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said in her sentencing. “The defendant thinks there’s something attractive about Nazi ideology.” 

Howell said that Dykes' case was one of the most "egregious" cases she had seen come out of the riot, and that he appeared to be on a path of escalating violence after he was also arrested for his role in the Unite the Right rally. The judge said his attendance at both rallies and the use of a gaiter to block his face showed that his behavior was more than just impulsive.

Dykes, who was 23 at the time of the January 6 riot, said he has forsaken the extremist ideologies, and asked for leniency in the sentencing. But he maintained his support for former President Donald Trump.

“I became a part of the mob,” Dykes said. “I didn’t want to hurt anyone, I just wanted to be there. I will never do anything like Jan. 6 ever again."

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.