Proud Boys leader, members convicted of seditious conspiracy in U.S. Capitol attack

Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was convicted on Thursday of orchestrating a plan for members of far-right extremist groups to attack the US Capitol in a desperate bid to keep Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 presidential election.

The jury in Washington, DC, found Tarrio and three others guilty of sedition conspiracy after hearing from dozens of witnesses for more than three months in one of the most serious cases of the shocking attack that occurred on January 6, 2021, as the world watched on live TV.

The other defendants are Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl. The jury has not yet reached a verdict on that count against defendant Dominic Pezzola, and has been ordered to continue deliberations.

All five were convicted of conspiracy to prevent members of Congress from performing their duties.

‘Do what you gotta do’

It’s a major milestone for the Justice Department, which has now secured offensive conspiracy convictions against the leaders of two major extremist groups prosecutors say should keep Democrat Joe Biden out of the White House at all costs. The Justice Department had not tried a seditious conspiracy case in a decade before a jury convicted another extremist group leader, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, of Civil War-era charges last year.

The charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Tarrio was not in Washington on January 6, because he had been arrested two days earlier in a separate case and ordered out of the capital. But prosecutors say he organized and directed an attack by the Proud Boys that stormed the Capitol that day.

Defense attorneys said there were no plans to storm the Capitol or stop Congressional certification of Biden’s victory. Tarrio’s lawyers are seeking to blame Trump, arguing that the former president incited a pro-Trump mob attack when he called on the crowd near the White House to “fight like hell.”

“It’s Donald Trump’s words. It’s motivation. It’s anger that caused what happened on January 6 in your beautiful and amazing city,” said Nayib Hassan’s lawyer in his final appeal to jurors. “It’s not Enrique Tarrio. They want to use Enrique Tarrio as a scapegoat for Donald J. Trump and those in power.”

The Proud Boys “lined up behind Donald Trump and were willing to commit violence on his behalf,” prosecutor Conor Mulroe said in closing arguments.

The backbone of the government’s case is the hundreds of messages exchanged by the Proud Boys in the days leading up to January 6 that show the far-right extremist group peddled Trump’s false claims of a stolen election and trade fears about what will happen when Biden takes office. .

When the Proud Boys rocked the Capitol, Tarrio cheered from afar, writing on social media: “Do what you gotta do.” In a Proud Boys secret group chat that day someone asked what to do next. Tarrio replied: “What else.”

“Make no mistake,” Tarrio wrote in another message. “We’re doing this.”

Oath Keepers will be punished soon

The origins of Proud Boys go back about ten years, with Canadian founder Gavin McInnes.

Tarrio, a Miami resident, was leading a group of neo-fascists – known for street fights with left-wing activists – when Trump rudely told the Proud Boys to “stop and stand” during the first 2020 presidential debate with Biden.

Nordean, of Auburn, Wash., is the leader of the Proud Boys chapter. Rehl leads the group’s chapter in Philadelphia. Biggs, from Ormond Beach, Fla., is a self-described Proud Boys organizer. Pezzola is a member of the group from Rochester, NY

As for the Oath Keepers, Rhodes and five other members were convicted in two separate conspiracy trials in what prosecutors say was a separate plot to prevent the transfer of presidential power from Trump to Biden. The three defendants were acquitted of sedition charges, but convicted of obstructing Congressional certification of Biden’s election victory.

The Justice Department has not announced how much prison time the Oath Keepers will serve when they are sentenced next month.