Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and three other members are found guilty of seditious conspiracy over January 6 riot – and they now face a maximum of 20 years in prison
Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and three other members of the group have been found guilty of seditious conspiracy over January 6 riot.
Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Tarrio were all found guilty of the charges after they broke into the Capitol following the 2020 election.
The jury in Washington D.C. could not reach a verdict against a fourth man, Dominic Pezzola, with the others facing a maximum of 20 years in prison.
All four men face a range of charges, including three separate conspiracy charges, obstructing the Electoral College vote and tampering with evidence.
The case is one of the most serious brought in the stunning attack which unfolded on January 6, 2021.
Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio has been found guilty of seditious conspiracy over January 6 riot in 2021
Tarrio was a top target of the Justice Department, which has now secured seditious conspiracy convictions against the leaders of two major extremist groups.
Prosecutors say the groups were intent on keeping Democrat Joe Biden out of the White House at all costs.
He led the neo-fascist group — known for street fights with left-wing activists — when Trump infamously told the Proud Boys to ‘stand back and stand by’ during his first debate with Biden.
Tarrio wasn’t in Washington on the day the Capitol was stormed – because he had been arrested two days earlier in a separate case and ordered out of the capital city.
But prosecutors said he organized and directed the attack by Proud Boys, with the group viewing itself as ‘Trump’s army’ and was prepared for ‘all-out war’ to stop Biden from becoming president.
The Proud Boys were ‘lined up behind Donald Trump and willing to commit violence on his behalf,’ prosecutor Conor Mulroe said in his closing argument.
During the trial the court heard that hundreds of messages were exchanged between the group leading up to the riot.
Tarrio wrote ‘Do what must be done’ on social media as the swarmed the Capitol, and when asked what they should do next he replied: ‘Do it again.’
The investigation has become the largest for the Justice Department in American history, and it hadn’t tried a seditious conspiracy case in over a decade.
Last year a jury convicted another extremist group leader, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, of the Civil War-era charge last year.
This is a developing story.
