Four members of the Proud Boys were convicted of the assault on the Capitol

First modification: 05/04/2023 – 21:48

A US jury convicted four members of the far-right group Proud Boys for seditious conspiracy. These individuals were accused of participating in a plot to attack the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021 that was intended to keep former President Donald Trump, who lost the 2020 presidential election, in power at all costs.

Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the group, was found guilty of the charge of seditious conspiracy, after the jury heard different witnesses for more than three months. He was also convicted of trying to obstruct the application of the law, certification as the winner of Joe Biden by Congress and two counts of conspiracy.

With this sentence, the US Department of Justice reaches a milestone, since it managed to put the accused of two extremist groups behind bars.

More than 500 people have pleaded guilty to charges brought by the Department of Justice related to the riots at the Capitol and another 80 have been convicted during the trials. These included Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and several of that group’s members.

The Proud Boys defendants could face up to 20 years in prison.

Tarrio, who has been detained since March 2022, received the verdict without showing any emotion, hugging one of his lawyers and shaking hands with the other before leaving the courtroom.

One of the Justice Department’s largest investigations

Proving the former leader of the Proud Boys guilty was one of the goals of the Department of Justice which carried out one of the largest investigations in US history, the Department files criminal charges against more than 1,000 people who emerged from the rampage at the Capitol.

Tarrio led this group, which was known for street fights with left-wing activists. He was not in Washington on January 6 because he had been arrested on January 4 for burning a Black Lives Matter banner at a church. Despite his absence on the day of the attack on the Capitol, prosecutors managed to prove that Tarrio organized and directed the assault.

In addition to Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl were convicted of seditious conspiracy. The jury is still out on the guilt of a fifth member of the Prous Boys, Dominic Pezzola.

Nordean led the attack in Washington, Rehl led the group in Philadelphia. Biggs described himself as an organizer of the Proud Boys, while Pezzola was a member of the Rochester, New York group.

Prosecutors said during the trial that the group viewed itself as “Trump’s army” and was prepared for “all-out war” to prevent Biden from becoming president.

Prosecutor Conor Mulroe in his closing argument said the Proud Boys were “ranked behind Donald Trump and willing to commit violence in his name.”

Of the five members charged, all but Tarrio entered the Capitol during the attack. Prosecutors said they were among the first to get past the barricades erected to protect the building.

The revealing chats of the Proud Boys

The backbone of the case brought by the government were hundreds of messages exchanged by the Proud Boys in the days leading up to January 6 showing the far-right group sharing false claims that the election was stolen from Trump and what would happen when Biden took office.

While the attack on the Capitol was taking place, Tarrio wrote on social networks: “Do what must be done.” In a Proud Boys encrypted group chat later someone asked what they should do next. Tarrio replied: “Do it again.” “Make no mistake,” in another message he said: “We did it.”

Defense attorneys denied any kind of plot to attack the Capitol or stop congressional certification of Biden’s victory. In fact, one of Tarrio’s lawyers, Nayib Hassan, tried to blame the former president, arguing in the final appeal that “these were the words of Donald Trump. It was his motivation. It was his anger that caused what happened on January 6 in his beautiful and amazing city”, and he added, “it was not Enrique Tarrio. They want to use Enrique Tarrio as a scapegoat for Donald J. Trump and those in power.”

In the attack on the Capitol, five people, including a police officer, were killed during or shortly after the riots, and more than 140 police officers were injured.

With AP and Reuters