Proud Boys Charged With Sedition in Capitol Attack - The New York Times
By: Alan Feuer and Adam Goldman (nytimes)
Another important step toward bringing the insurrection conspirators to justice.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
An amended federal indictment charged five members of the far-right group, including Enrique Tarrio, its former leader, with seditious conspiracy for their roles in the Jan. 6 assault.
Jim Urquhart/Reuters
A charge of seditious conspiracy requires prosecutors to prove that force was used either to overthrow the government or to interfere with the execution of federal law.
Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the Proud Boys, and four other members of the far-right group were indicted on Monday for seditious conspiracy in connection with the storming of the Capitol last January, the most serious criminal charges to be brought in the Justice Department's sprawling investigation of the assault.
The sedition charges against Mr. Tarrio and his co-defendants — Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola — came in an amended indictment that was unsealed in Federal District Court in Washington. The men had already been charged in an earlier indictment filed in March with conspiring to obstruct the certification of the 2020 presidential election, which took place during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.
It was not immediately clear what evidence led to the new charges against the members of the Proud Boys, who were central in the effort to storm the Capitol and help forestall President Donald J. Trump's defeat.
Another Proud Boy lieutenant who was originally charged with the men, Charles Donohoe, pleaded guilty in April and is cooperating with the government's inquiry into the group. Around the time of Mr. Tarrio's arrest this spring, federal investigators searched the homes — and seized the phones — of three other high-ranking Proud Boys identified as unindicted co-conspirators in the case, but none of them have been publicly charged.
A charge of seditious conspiracy requires prosecutors to prove that force was used either to overthrow the government or to interfere with the execution of federal law.
Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, was not in Washington on the day of the assault on the Capitol. But federal prosecutors have said that even though Mr. Tarrio was not accused of "physically taking part in the breach of the Capitol," he nonetheless "led the advance planning and remained in contact with other members of the Proud Boys during" the storming of the building.
The only other defendants in the Capitol riot investigation to have faced a seditious conspiracy charge so far are Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia, and 10 of his subordinates. Prosecutors say that Mr. Rhodes led a conspiracy to forcibly stop the lawful transition of presidential power by sending men into the Capitol on Jan. 6 and by establishing a heavily-armed "quick reaction force" outside of Washington that was prepared to rush to the aid of their compatriots at the building.
Unlike Mr. Rhodes, Mr. Tarrio was not in Washington on Jan. 6. He had been ordered to leave the city by a local judge two days earlier, after being charged with burning a Black Lives Matter banner at a church during a spree of violence that had followed a different pro-Trump rally in December.
Federal prosecutors have said that even though Mr. Tarrio was not accused of "physically taking part in the breach of the Capitol," he had nonetheless "led the advance planning and remained in contact with other members of the Proud Boys during" the storming of the building.
Prosecutors have claimed, for instance, that Mr. Tarrio had issued orders before the attack for members of the group to leave behind their traditional black-and-yellow polo shirts and remain "incognito" when they arrived in Washington on Jan. 6. Mr. Tarrio also helped create a "command and control structure" for the group on a private Telegram group chat called the Ministry of Self Defense, prosecutors say.
As the riot at the Capitol unfolded, Mr. Tarrio appeared to take credit for the Proud Boys' role in what was happening. "We did this," he wrote at one point on the Telegram group chat.
Lawyers for Mr. Tarrio and the other men have repeatedly claimed there is no evidence that they conspired in advance to storm the Capitol. By setting up a "Ministry of Self Defense" group chat and taking other measures like acquiring protective gear, the Proud Boys had simply been trying to guard themselves against leftist activists with whom they had scuffled before, at earlier events in Washington, the lawyers said.
The Proud Boys will also be featured when the House committee investigating Jan. 6 holds its initial public hearing Thursday night. The committee intends to present live testimony from Nick Quested, a documentary filmmaker who was embedded with the group during the riot, and from Caroline Edwards, a Capitol Police officer who was injured in an early assault that day said to have been triggered by the Proud Boys.
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It has been said that: "The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine."
As the investigation continues, I doubt that these will be the last seditious conspiracy indictments.
meh, at least they'll stay in jail until the next retrumplican POTUS decides to pardon all the 1/6 domestic terrorists. AFAIC the majority of those NRA-holes should've been power washed off the capitol steps 1.5 years ago.
"A charge of seditious conspiracy requires prosecutors to prove that force was used either to overthrow the government or to interfere with the execution of federal law."
guilty.
But they were just tourists.........
Hey ... some pirates are 'good' tourists too!
Johnny Depp was good for Alexandria's service businesses over the last six weeks.
I knew I should have used buccaneer instead. Back to Depp, I have nil vicarious interest in his private life, nor his flotilla of ladies.
All that I know about the trial is that the crowd was large and came early.
Looks like force was used to me, Greg.
It was a violent and forceful occupation of the Capitol with the intent to overthrow the government and/or interfere with the execution of federal law.
Yes.
That's the part they'll have to prove. Ostensibly they have some level of evidence, so we'll see how it goes.
The prosecution is required to prove every element of its case.
It will be interesting to see what evidence is adduced at trial.
They caused congress to have to evacuate instead of certify an election. There is video of the mob hunting Pelosi. That should be enough but there's more.
If all they did was hang Pence in effigy outside the building, that would be different.
To me, the evidence of guilt is overwhelming, but you never know what a jury might decide.
Force? Breaking doors. Physically harming police officers.
Interfere with the execution of federal law? They interrupted and delayed and attempted to alter the outcome of congress's certifying of the presidential election.
I hope they like prison food.
According to the Republicans, it was just a normal day in Congress.
"Proud Boys indicted" Yeah. The lowest hanging fruit on the tree of the lowest common denominator situated beneath the lowest bar of the society.
Are these guys gainfully employed? If so, by whom. And why?
Still can't understand why these 'dregs of society' envision such hope in a New York real estate flim flam man.
Maybe because of who they hang out with?
the biggest chunks of filth always coagulate on top of the sewage treatment pond...
That's because it's all froth and fat. There's no substance to it
There are other photos of the skank with proud boys which I cannot seem to find right now.
Here is the skank with some other inbred white supremacists.
Roger Stone - that depraved scumbag - has proud boys as his body guards.
The guy on the lower right photo standing next to Stone flashing an 'apparent white power symbol'------(How could he mix with the 'Daily Stormer' crowd? How would that work?
Damn, tourists charged with sedition. I wonder if they had a tour guide?
A few Republican members of Congress showed them around.
Taylor-Greene and Boebert were tour guides.