Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four of his lieutenants have been charged with seditious conspiracy to stage a coordinated attack on the US Capitol to prevent Congress from confirming President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, authorities said on Monday with
Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, and the four others have previously been charged with separate conspiracy counts.
These are the most serious allegations leveled against Tarrio and the right-wing group to date.
Tarrio did not take part in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots, but allegedly orchestrated the activities from a “command and control structure” within the fringe.
Police arrested Tarrio two days before the Washington riots and charged him with destroying a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic black church during a December 2020 protest.
Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio pretended to hold a lighter to the US Capitol before turning himself in at a Washington DC jail in December 2020 for a five-month sentence
Tarrio was also snapped while giving a V-sign near the Capitol on Monday night before his sentencing
Tarrio posed with his Proud Boy pal and a rooster ornament before beginning his sentence
He was ordered to leave DC but instead went to an underground parking garage where he met with a documentary crew, fellow Proud Boys and Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, founder of the Oath Keepers, another far-right group involved in the riots .
Tarrio pleaded guilty to two counts of burning the BLM flag in August and was sentenced to five months in prison.
The new riot-related charges against Proud Boys members are among the most serious yet filed, but they are not the first of their kind.
Eleven members or allies of the anti-government militia group Oath Keepers, including Rhodes, were charged with seditious conspiracy to attack the Capitol in January.
Tarrio, pictured in Portland in September 2020, has been the leader of the Proud Boys since 2018
Tarrio, pictured in black in front with a megaphone, took to the streets of Portland to protest the behavior of far-left group Antifa in the Oregon city
“On January 6, Tarrio’s men — the leaders and members of the MOSD — led the crowd that illegally breached the Capitol grounds and overran the police lines designed to protect the Capitol and its residents,” federal prosecutors said.
“Co-conspirator Dominic Pezzola was the first person to physically breach the Capitol when he used a stolen Capitol Police riot shield to smash a window next to the door of the Senate wing, allowing the first members of the mob to breach the interior of the Capitol at 2:13 p.m ‘
Tarrio’s attorney, Sabino Jauregui, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
More than three dozen people charged with the Capitol siege have been identified by federal authorities as leaders, members or associates of the Proud Boys.
A New Yorker pleaded guilty in December to storming the US Capitol with fellow members of the Proud Boys.
Several Proud Boys also entered the Capitol itself after the mob smashed windows and forced open doors
On the morning of January 6, members of the Proud Boys met at the Washington Monument and marched to the Capitol before then-President Donald Trump finished his speech to thousands of supporters near the White House
Matthew Greene was the first member of the Proud Boys to publicly plead guilty to conspiring with other members to prevent Congress from confirming the Electoral College vote.
Greene agreed to cooperate with authorities.
On the morning of January 6, members of the Proud Boys met at the Washington Monument and marched to the Capitol before then-President Donald Trump finished his speech to thousands of supporters near the White House.
Just before Congress called a joint session to confirm the election results, a group of Proud Boys followed a crowd that broke through barriers at a pedestrian entrance to the Capitol grounds, an indictment said.
Several Proud Boys also entered the Capitol itself after the mob smashed windows and forced open doors.
WHO ARE THE PROUD BOYS?
Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes founded the all-male Proud Boys in 2016. McInnes and the Proud Boys have described the group as a politically incorrect men’s club for “Western chauvinists” and deny ties to far-right groups openly pro-racist use and anti-Semitic views.
The Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center labeled the Proud Boys a hate group and said its members often spread “outright bigotry” and “anti-Muslim and misogynist rhetoric” online, and posted prominent images of themselves on social media as Holocaust deniers, white nationalists and “known neo-Nazis”.
Current national leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, took part in the infamous “Unite the Right” demonstration in Charlottesville in 2017.
Proud Boys have been involved in a number of high-profile violent clashes at political events.
In New York City, in October 2018, police arrested several members of the Proud Boys who fought with anti-fascist protesters at a Republican club in Manhattan after McInnes gave a speech.
Proud Boys members have also frequently clashed with counter-protesters at rallies in California and Oregon.
Most recently, the group took part in the Siege of the Capitol on January 6, where some members were seen breaking into the building.
In February they were classified as a terrorist organization by Canada.
Prosecutors said the Proud Boys arranged for members to communicate over certain frequencies on Chinese-made radios.
The devices can be programmed to operate on hundreds of frequencies, making it difficult for outsiders to intercept.
In December, a federal judge refused to dismiss an earlier conspiracy charge against four alleged Proud Boys leaders.
US District Judge Timothy Kelly dismissed defense attorneys’ arguments that the four men – Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Charles Donohoe – were charged with conduct protected by the right to free speech.
Nordean, of Auburn, Washington, was president of the Proud Boys and a member of the group’s national Elders Council. Biggs from Ormond Beach, Florida is a self-proclaimed organizer of the Proud Boys.
Rehl was president of the Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia. Donohoe of Kernersville, North Carolina, also served as his local chapter president, according to the indictment.
Proud Boys members describe the group as a politically incorrect men’s club for “Western chauvinists”. Its members have repeatedly fought with anti-fascist activists at rallies and protests.
Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, who founded the Proud Boys in 2016, sued the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling it a hate group.