A Scottsdale City Court judge remanded the Neo-Nazi provocateur, real name Anthime Joseph Gionet, to jail Thursday afternoon for his conviction in an assault on a bouncer in December 2020.
Assistant City Prosecutor Joshua Austin asked Judge James Blake for the maximum six months in jail. Gionet’s lawyer, Zach Thornley of Goodyear, called the city’s recommendation “unprecedented.”
Blake imposed a lighter sentence of 30 days in jail and $3,200 in restitution.
It was barely a month before the U.S. Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, that Gionet switched on his camera and sought to gather internet clicks in Old Town Scottsdale. He tormented workers at Giligin’s Bar and twice sprayed a bouncer, who was trying to escort him out of the business, with pepper gel during a livestream.
Pepper gel is more dangerous than pepper spray, prosecutors said at sentencing.
The worker’s eyes were bloodshot and rheumy, Scottsdale Police said.
Gionet was convicted of assault, trespass, and disorderly conduct in October – the first convictions for the 34-year-old alt-right streamer who used to work for BuzzFeed.
But Austin said Gionet has a “lack of rehabilitative potential” after he was banned from most social media websites and took to Telegram, often a haven for neo-Nazis. Gionet used the messaging service to post the prosecutor's address, email, and phone number on the site.
“The persona that’s created by the defendant may or may not be real, but he creates real dangers for our society,” Austin said in court Thursday.
And despite sounding sheepish before Blake at his sentencing, Austin shared a video with the court that was filmed after Gionet’s conviction. It suggested otherwise.
"So, even if they were like, 'You need to do a week in jail,' we're gonna say, 'Try me bitch,’” Gionet said in the video.
He also called Austin a slur for gay men in a post on Telegram.
But his mother, Suzanne Gionet, came to his defense Thursday when her testimony as a character witness contradicted most facts in her son’s case.
“I raised him to love people and be honest,” Suzanne told the court. “He wants to make an impact for good in the world, and I taught him that.”
Days after federal agents arrested Gionet, the Scottsdale court began receiving hundreds of spurious online motions filed by the public. It included such gems as endless pages of ejaculating penis emojis.
“Nearly all were spam consisting in many cases of racial epithets or similar derogatory or inflammatory comments," city spokesperson Kelly Corsette said.
Gionet also violated his release order and skipped court – and town – last January, according to court records.
Aaron Joseph Lester, one of his faithful fans, bailed him out for $3,000 so the then-Queen Creek resident could set up shop in Clearwater, Florida.
“I’m sick of paying for flights to Arizona,” Gionet said in a recent livestream as he prepared for his sentencing hearing.
But his first probation violation came in January 2021, when he participated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol, court records state.
Gionet posted video of himself marching with white supremacists at Charlottesville and hanging out with neo-Nazi blogger Andrew Anglin. He also live streamed on YouTube for 27 minutes as he committed the alleged crimes inside the U.S. Captiol. Filming his own antics is a habit.
Federal prosecutors charged him with violent entry and federal trespassing for his role in the January 6, 2021 unrest.
The next hearing for Gionet in that case is set for February 17.
Prosecutors in Gionet’s Scottsdale case referenced his involvement in the insurrection and other pending criminal charges in Maricopa County in their argument for the half-year maximum.
Last month, Maricopa County Attorney's Office claimed he defaced a Hanukkah display in front of the Arizona State Capitol and charged him with multiple counts of criminal damage. He's awaiting trial on those charges.
And in 2019, he tweeted that Jewish people should be sent to the gas chambers. The Southern Poverty Law Center has deemed him a white nationalist.
That’s why, despite Thornley criticizing the city for taking “a special interest” in Gionet’s case, Austin was adamant about imposing a strict sentence.
Six months in jail was “The only sentence that will have any chance of deterring this defendant from engaging in criminal conduct in the future,” Austin said.
Interestingly, the victim in this case told the judge Thursday he’d prefer if Gionet got off without jail time. But Blake said remanding Gionet was warranted for the “needless violence.”
And Baked Alaska’s own lawyer said, “He’s likely looking at going into federal custody.”
For now, Gionet will sit in Scottsdale City Jail. Unless he’s granted a successful appeal, which he’s promised to file, he won’t return to Clearwater until Valentine’s Day.
