‘Bob’s Burgers’ voice actor sentenced to a year and a day in Jan. 6 riot

Actor Jay Johnston, who voiced a pizzeria owner in the television show “Bob’s Burgers” and had roles in “Better Call Saul,” “Arrested Development” and the movie “Anchorman,” was sentenced Monday to a year and a day in prison for interfering with police in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

Johnston pleaded guilty in July to a federal rioting charge for being part of a crowd that pressed up against officers in the lower West Terrace tunnel at the height of the insurrection, including a widely shown incident in which D.C. police officer Daniel Hodges screamed for help as he was crushed between rioters and a metal-framed door.

Prosecutors had sought a term of 18 months, citing the injuries Hodges suffered at the hands of rioters yelling “heave-ho” as they tried to break through a line of officers defending the tunnel chokepoint.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kaitlin Klamann wrote in a sentencing memo that Johnston joked as he witnessed and filmed numerous acts of violence by rioters against police. The prosecutor included in the filing a photograph of Johnston smiling at a 2023 Halloween party while dressed as Jacob Chansley, the rioter known as “QAnon shaman,” who stormed the Capitol carrying a spear and wearing a fur-lined horned headdress.

“He thinks his participation in one of the most serious crimes against our democracy is a joke,” Klamann wrote, referring to Johnston.

Defense attorney Stanley E. Woodward asked for a sentence of four to 10 months or less, saying that prosecutors have overstated Johnston’s actions because of his notoriety to make a point. The actor, Woodward added, has been “blacklisted” and “excommunicated” from Hollywood roles and is working as a handyman to support his 13-year-old autistic daughter.

Johnston expressed remorse and accepted responsibility for making it harder for police to do their jobs on Jan. 6, sending a text message four days later stating, “[A]lthough it wasn’t directly my fault, I did take part in the hysteria that erupted and was maced and tear gassed accordingly,” Woodward argued.

As of Oct. 6, more than 1,532 people had been federally charged and nearly 1,200 had pleaded or been found guilty at trial in the Capitol riot. More than half of the about 1,000 sentenced to date faced misdemeanor charges, although nearly 600 have been charged with assaulting police or rioting. At least five people died in or immediately after the violence, which caused $3 million in damage, injured 140 officers and forced the evacuation of Congress as it met to confirm the results of the 2020 election.

Johnston was the voice of the character Jimmy Pesto on Fox’s “Bob’s Burgers.” He also appeared regularly on “Mr. Show with Bob and David,” an HBO sketch comedy series that starred Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, and “The Sarah Silverman Show” on Comedy Central.

U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols imposed the sentence.