Five members of the far-right Proud Boys are on trial in Washington for seditious conspiracy in connection with storming the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Those implicated are accused of conspiring and coordinating the bloody attack in an attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power from then-President Donald Trump to Joe Biden, the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
If convicted, the defendants could face up to 20 years in prison each.
The trial, now in its fourth month, is also a critical test of the government’s determination to pursue the rarely used charge of seditious conspiracy against those who planned and directed the attack.
In two previous cases, jurors convicted Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and a high-ranking lieutenant of seditious conspiracy in November, and found four other members of the anti-government militia guilty of the charge in January.
“The stakes are high in this case,” said Jordan Strauss, a former federal prosecutor now managing director of Kroll, a New York-based business research and risk consulting firm.
It is unclear how the jury will assess the Proud Boys’ case. The trial is drawing to a close as the defense wraps up its case and the jury begins deliberations.
A conviction would mark a significant victory for the US Department of Justice, as continues to pursue the perpetrators of the attack two years later.
Who are the Proud Boys?
The Proud Boys are a far-right group that emerged during the 2016 presidential election.
They describe themselves as a “pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world; also known as Western chauvinists.”
However, extremism experts consider this public figure to be a red herring. In reality, they say, the group harbors a violent agenda and promotes misogyny, Islamophobia, transphobia and anti-immigration sentiment.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, the Proud Boys have been “regulars” at Trump rallies and far-right demonstrations, including the 2017 Unite the Right rally where a counter-protester was killed.
Former FBI Special Agent Tom O’Connor compared the Proud Boys to the “hooligans football”, far-right thugs, in contrast to the Oath Keepers, who consider themselves “far-right special forces”.
The Proud Boys came into the spotlight during the 2020 presidential campaign when Trump, speaking during a presidential debateurged: “Proud Boys? Stand back and wait”
A congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol has singled out the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers as two of the extremist groups that led the assault.
Who are the defendants?
Along with Enrique Tarrio, former president of the Proud Boys, the group includes three local leaders: Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean and Zachary Rehl.
The fifth defendant, Dominic Pezzola, is a former Marine from Rochester, New York, who joined the Proud Boys after the 2020 election.
Pezzola became the face of the January 6 attack when he was filmed using a riot shield, stolen from police, to break a window, clearing the way for a mob of rioters to storm the building.
What are the charges?
The Proud Boys face a total of nine charges, including seditious conspiracy.
Federal law defines seditious conspiracy as a plot to use force to “overthrow,” “oppose” the authority of the government, or “prevent” the execution of its laws.
The prosecution alleges that they conspired to “oppose the legal transfer of presidential power by force.”
In addition to seditious conspiracy, the five are charged with conspiracy to obstruct official procedure, destroy government property, break into a federal office and other charges.
Pezolla faces an additional charge of theft.
What does the Prosecutor say?
Prosecutors contend that the Proud Boys viewed Biden’s presidency as an existential threat and were determined to prevent him from taking office, even by force if necessary.
To support their claim, prosecutors offered a large amount of evidence, including social media posts, text messages, emails, and phone calls exchanged by the Proud Boys in the lead up to January 6, 2021.
As early as November 16, 2020, less than two weeks after the election, Tarrio posted an ominous message online.
“If Biden steals this election,” Tarrio wrote, “we will be political prisoners. We will not go quietly, I promise.”
Jeremy Bertino, one of two ex-Proud Boys who testified against him, told the jury that the group believed they “had to take charge” and lead the people into “total revolution.”
At the end of December 2020, as the lawsuits failed of Trump to overturn the election results, Tarrio and his henchmen created a “national protest planning” group they called the “Ministry of Self-Defense.”
That’s when the Proud Boys began preparing for Jan. 6, the day Congress was to ratify Biden’s victory, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors say that while the Proud Boys leaders did not bring firearms into Washington, they “recruited” their members as “tools” to carry out the attack.
Tarrio was arrested in Washington two days before the storming of the Capitol and banned from entering the city. He but he kept in touch with the other four as they led the charge at the seat of the US Legislative power.
“Make no mistake,” he boasted in a message after the attack. “We did”.
What is the defense argument?
The defense has claimed that Tarrio’s message and other allegedly incriminating messages exchanged between the Proud Boys had been distorted and taken out of context.
The prosecution, defense attorneys insisted, produced no evidence of a plan to storm the Capitol.
It was Trump, not the Proud Boys, who “unleashed the mob” that stormed the Capitol, a lawyer for Tarrio said at the trial in January.
The Proud Boys, the lawyers said, simply got caught up in a spontaneous eruption of rage over Trump’s defeat.
Defense attorneys have also challenged the prosecution’s theory that the defendants used other members as “tools” in the Capitol breach.
In a risky move for the defense, two of the five defendants took the stand in their own defense this month, trying to downplay their role in the attack.
Echoing other defense witnesses, they insisted they had not heard of any plans to attack the Capitol ahead of time.
Rehl, the leader of the Proud Boys in Philadelphia, said the group was just following the “raucous” crowd.
Pezzola, the proud boy of New York, said the Proud Boys were “acting as trespassing protesters” rather than an invading force.
But other defense witnesses were put on the scene. Under questioning by prosecutors, they admitted that the Proud Boys were more intent on causing havoc than they had let on.
What do the experts say about the case?
The outcome of the trial is up in the air, but experts say the Proud Boys face an uphill battle.
The seditious conspiracy charge doesn’t necessarily require prosecutors to prove that all the Proud Boys actually committed violence, Strauss said.
All prosecutors need to prove is that the group “conspired” to sabotage the presidential transfer of power.
“Conspiracy can appear to comfort or equip someone or help someone plan an act of violence, knowing what they’re going to do,” Strauss said.
O’Connor, a former FBI special agent, agreed.
“The Proud Boys didn’t show up on January 6,” O’Connor said. “It took a bit of coordination and effort to get the sheep that followed and headed towards the Capitol in large numbers.”
The jury will ultimately determine whether the Proud Boys’ actions amount to a seditious conspiracy, O’Connor said.
“That’s our system and it doesn’t matter which way it goes, you have to take the jury’s verdict on that,” he concluded.
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