Michael Alan Jones casing a Harriet Tubman monument in Sylva, N.C. in Patriot Front in 2021. Video screengrab courtesy Unicorn Riot
Michael Alan Jones, a former Proud Boy and self-admitted paid FBI informant, is a free man after a federal judge issued a suspended sentence with two years of supervised release — a lighter-than-anticipated punishment — for illegally possessing a firearm as a felon.
Judge David G. Larimer cited a leg infection Jones developed as a reason for departing from the sentencing guideline range calling for 24-30 months in prison, as the government had requested. Jones’ infection nearly resulted in an amputation.
Jones’ lawyer cited his client’s work for the FBI as a paid informant as evidence of his reform. But Jones came to trial with an extensive history of extremist activity, including avowed white supremacist beliefs.
Left unexplained in the Rochester, N.Y., courtroom: Why was Jones and a friend driving around rural Genesee County with an AR-15, ammunition, crossbows, bolt-cutters and other suspicious items at the time when they were pulled over by sheriff’s deputies in March 2022?
“Make no mistake: Carrying around an AR-15 for no particular purpose is a grave matter,” Larimer told Jones during the sentencing in Rochester on Wednesday. “There’s no evidence that you used the gun for any illegal purpose. But I don’t know what you were doing driving around Genesee County with that weapon and the other things that you had.”
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The 25-year-old Jones offered no explanation, although he made a public apology in court, saying, “I just want to do better tomorrow. All I can do is apologize for my past. Sorry, your honor.”
Jones will be required to report to a federal probation officer in North Carolina for two years. He did not respond for an interview forwarded through his lawyer.
Discussion during Jones’ sentencing about his extremist history was limited to the Proud Boys, with whom the defendant rallied in North Carolina in late 2020 and then in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021.
Jones was arrested and charged by D.C. Metropolitan police with violating curfew on Jan. 6, along with four other North Carolina Proud Boys.
But despite evidence uncovered by volunteer sleuths showing that he battled police on the west plaza and then went inside the Capitol, Jones has faced no federal charges to date for his role in the Jan. 6 attack.
Steven Slawinski, Jones’ lawyer, told the court on Wednesday that his client was cooperating with the FBI before Jan. 6.
“I believe it led to arrests, if I’m not mistaken.” Slawinski said. “And he was a paid informant for the FBI.”
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Slawinski characterized Jones’ extremist activity as misplaced patriotism. He told the judge that his client’s military career was derailed two months into Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri when charges stemming from sexual contact with a minor caught up with the then-19-year-old. It ended his plans to become a military police officer.
“At the age of 19 or 20, he was really dispirited,” Slawinski said. “He felt like he had gotten a raw deal. He was young, and he fell into this group — this Proud Boys group — and he was sort of entranced by it.
“And because he couldn’t be a military policeman, he thought that he was protecting his country in a different way,” Slawinski added.
Slawinski also brought up Jones’ brief military service while addressing the firearms offense, noting the similarities between the AR-15 his client was caught with and M-16s, which military police use for training.
“So, it’s not an unnatural gun for somebody in the military to know how to handle,” Slawinski said.
Neither the defendant nor the government brought up Jones’ involvement with the Base and Patriot Front, two groups that are even more ideologically committed to white supremacy than the Proud Boys.
In a statement submitted to the court prior to sentencing, Slawinski wrote that the onset of Jones’ leg infection took place in December 2021 “when he sought treatment while hiking the Appalachian Trail in Virginia.”
In fact, according to internal chats leaked to Unicorn Riot, Jones — who posted under the name “Adam NC” — was hospitalized in Wytheville, Va. while returning from a Dec. 4, 2021 Patriot Front rally in Washington, D.C., where he coordinated radio communications for the white supremacist group.
Without mentioning Patriot Front specifically, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Moynihan alluded to Jones’ continued extremist activity after he supposedly renounced the Proud Boys. Moynihan told Larimer, the judge, that “the fact that what follows after that is he gets arrested for possessing this rifle” undercuts the claim that Jones matured.
Moynihan could not be reached for comment by Raw Story.
“It’s unfortunate that the court didn’t consider the breadth of Jones’ extremist activities, which could have been used as an aggravating factor,” Jeff Tischauser, a senior researcher at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told Raw Story. “It’s something that we’ve seen for the last 50 years — are prosecutors and the entire criminal justice system have not prosecuted white supremacist on multiple charges. There’s a history of not prosecuting white supremacists for their full crimes, but instead only narrowly prosecuting them for weapons charges.”
During his sentencing on Wednesday, Jones told the judge that “my work with the FBI led me into this situation” while also faulting “falling in with the wrong crowd.”
The FBI did not respond to an inquiry from Raw Story.
But if, as Jones and his lawyer contend, Jones worked as a paid FBI informant, Jones’ claim that his informant work “led” to his arrest raises a question about whether his FBI handler was aware that he was traveling through rural New York with an assault rifle.
Police body-camera video obtained by the Batavian newspaper captured the traffic stop. In it, Jones and the 18-year-old passenger give contradictory statements, with neither man initially claiming ownership of a crossbow found in the car, and Jones denying there was a firearm in the vehicle before the deputies recovered the AR-15.
“There’s a certain sense of satisfaction that we know that we’re part of something larger, though we probably won’t ever know what that was,” Deputy Kenneth Quackenbush told the Batavian. “But at the end of the day, you know, we don’t know why they were here. And based on their behavior, it was something not good. And so, we were able to intervene in that and at least delay plans, if nothing else.”
The Batavian also obtained video of an investigator identified by the newspaper as an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force agent.
After noting that the location of the traffic stop was about 30-to-45 minutes east of the Rochester area, where the 18-year-old passenger lived, the Joint Terrorism Task Force agent asked Jones: “So, what brings you out this way?”
“We can talk about that another time,” Jones replied. “Nothing illegal, I promise…. I really would not mind talking to you more, but we kind of started getting into specifics on why I may or may not be here. You can understand why I’d be a little hesitant about that without a lawyer, right?”
During the interview, the Joint Terrorism Task Force agent specifically expressed concern about whether Jones knew anyone who might carry out an act of violence.
“Although they may not be committing any crimes, if they’re going to pose a threat of violence to the community or have plans to commit some kind of force, you know, against public property, whatever, I want to know about it,” the agent said. “If you have that information, I would appreciate it.”
Jones replied: “I don’t think there are any immediate concerns. Like, I don’t think there’s anything that’s gonna pop up in the next day or two before talking to a lawyer that would actually give you cause for concern. At least, not to my knowledge.”
Tischauser said that based on the tools found in the car, which included bolt-cutters and knives, it’s possible that Jones and the 18-year-old friend were planning to cut through a fence to access a restricted area and carry out an act of vandalism. Patriot Front members are expected to participate in propaganda efforts that include stickering, dropping banners and spray-painting. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Patriot Front members have “destroyed dozens of murals, statues and other public displays that celebrate Black culture, LGBTQ pride or commemorate victims of police murder and racially targeted violence.”
“When you see the weapons, you could speculate on what they would use that for,” Tischauser told Raw Story. “But with the bolt-cutters and hunting knives, I’ve seen Patriot Front propaganda videos with unidentified Patriot Front members with bolt-cutters and knives using them to cut through fencing on interstates and cover billboards with racist propaganda.”
Tischauser said the revelation that Jones was a paid FBI informant might explain “why he got a slap on the wrist.” The use of informants to build cases against extremists presents an ethical quandary, he added.
“If I’m being targeted by this guy, I want him locked up,” he said. “But if he’s providing information that might bring down some of these groups, that’s a trade I’m willing to take.
“Ideally, the prosecutors are thinking this through and trying to do what’s in the best interest of community justice,” Tischauser added. “The outcome we saw in Jones’ case does not serve community justice. But there might be something I don’t know yet.”
Slawinski, Jones’ lawyer, suggested a cleaner resolution to Jones story.
“Michael Jones took responsibility for his actions, and has left the Proud Boys,” Slawinski told Raw Story. “He is happy with the result and is looking forward to getting on with his young life.”