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FORMER PROUD BOYS leader Enrique Tarrio has been convicted of orchestrating a plot for members of his far-right extremist group to attack the US Capitol in a bid to keep Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 presidential election.
A jury in Washington DC found Tarrio guilty of seditious conspiracy after hearing from dozens of witnesses over more than three months in one of the most serious cases brought in the stunning attack that unfolded on 6 January 2021, as the world watched on live TV.
It is a significant milestone for the Justice Department, which has now secured seditious conspiracy convictions against the leaders of two major extremist groups that prosecutors said were intent on keeping Democrat Joe Biden out of the White House at all costs. The charge carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
Tarrio was a top target of what has become the largest Justice Department investigation in American history. 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 was not in Washington on 6 January because he had been arrested two days earlier in a separate case and ordered out of the capital city. But prosecutors said he organised and directed the attack by Proud Boys who stormed the Capitol that day.
Prosecutors told jurors the group viewed 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.
The backbone of the government’s case was hundreds of messages exchanged by Proud Boys in the days leading up to 6 January that show the far-right extremist group peddling Trump’s false claims of a stolen election and trading fears over what would happen when Biden took office.
As Proud Boys swarmed the Capitol, Tarrio cheered them on from afar, writing on social media: “Do what must be done.”
In a Proud Boys encrypted group chat later that day, someone asked what they should do next. Tarrio responded: “Do it again.”
“Make no mistake,” Tarrio wrote in another message. “We did this.”
Defence lawyers denied there was any plot to attack the Capitol or stop Congress’ certification of Biden’s win. A lawyer for Tarrio sought to push the blame onto Trump, arguing the former president incited the pro-Trump mob’s attack when he urged the crowd near the White House to “fight like hell”.
“It was Donald Trump’s words. It was his motivation. It was his anger that caused what occurred on 6 January in your beautiful and amazing city,” attorney Nayib Hassan said in his final appeal to jurors.
“It was not Enrique Tarrio. They want to use Enrique Tarrio as a scapegoat for Donald J Trump and those in power.”
In addition to Tarrio, a Miami resident, three other Proud Boys were convicted of seditious conspiracy: Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl.
Jurors have not yet reached a unanimous verdict on the sedition charge for fifth defendant: Dominic Pezzola. The judge told them to keep deliberating.
Nordean, of Auburn, Washington, was a Proud Boys chapter leader. Rehl led a group chapter in Philadelphia. Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, was a self-described Proud Boys organiser. Pezzola was a group member from Rochester, New York.
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 the Civil War-era charge last year.
Over the course of two Oath Keepers trials, Rhodes and five other members were convicted of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors said was a separate plot to forcibly halt the transfer of presidential power from Trump to Biden.
Three defendants were acquitted of the sedition charge, but convicted of obstructing Congress’ certification of Biden’s electoral victory.
The Justice Department has yet to disclose how much prison time it will seek when the Oath Keepers are sentenced next month.
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Find out where your local election candidates stand on cannabis decriminalisation
No idea why you are being down voted?? Great link
Great link indeed. Thanks for posting.
Shouldn’t this be “Colombia”? Who wrote this- Steve Harvey?
Further information about the Colombia connection can be swallowed at the IRA/SF offices.
No this is about Colombia
*Columbia
How about Kumbaya, we’ve had everything else :p
Leo/diarmiud, is the main source of funding for your cultural ambassadors,the uda/uvf coming from jumble sales and mini marathon sponsorship cards?
Could be worse, could be doing business with the C.I.A.
Strange that the drug gangs and The Gardai keep changing tactics but the law makers and judiciary just keep handing out suspended sentences. If I stole something would I not just be able to say it is for my own use. Or if I was an arsonist would the government give me lead free petrol. Methadone is not working, cold turkey may be the only answer to get off heroin and bringing drugs into Ireland should be treated as endangering a nation with zero tolerance regardless of the poor mouth stories
Won’t do anything to help. Just punish already desperate people
John doe, that’s only if you let them out again.
That’s what they do in the USA doesn’t seem to have solved their drug problem.
Compare that to Portugal where possession is decriminalised, drug related deaths, illness and harm all reducing.
What about the elderly people being savagely attacked in their homes so that drug habits canbe fed, do they not count? If you are only doing at weekends for the craic you are contributing to the of mass fortunes of the like ,of John Gilligan and deserve what punishment you get. A drug free society may not be possible but surely it is worth a try.
Columbia, I meant to say Colombia. No no no I meant to say Phillipines. Sorry it’s the Philippines!!!!
Our government should legalise marajuna HERB FOR A START HAVE INJECTION CLINICS FIR DRUG USERS AND SLOWLY PUT U NO WHO OUT OF BUSINESS
Irishman went to Afghanistan to see if there was any craic. The mujahideen told him he had made a complete hash of the interview. He was a proper dopium!
One silver bullet….. Legalisation.
It’s COLOMBIA
have your say