Proud Boys led Jan. 6 riot to keep Trump in office, U.S. says at trial - The Washington Post

“The transportation of powerfulness from Donald Trump to Joe Biden was stopped — astatine the hands of these defendants,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason B.A. McCullough told jurors.

Directed by erstwhile Proud Boys president and pb suspect Enrique Tarrio, the authoritative said, “These men joined unneurotic and agreed to usage immoderate means necessary, including force, to halt Congress from certifying the election, and connected January 6 they took purpose astatine the bosom of our democracy.”

Defense attorneys blasted prosecutors’ effort to find “scapegoats” for what they called an unplanned riot. Instead, they blamed President Donald Trump for inciting the mob and instrumentality enforcement leaders for failing to hole for violence.

“President Trump told these radical that the predetermination was stolen. … He’s the 1 who unleashed that mob astatine the Capitol connected Jan. 6,” Tarrio lawyer Sabino Jauregui said.

It would beryllium an “injustice” to clasp Trump’s followers accountable portion uncovering it “too hard to blasted Trump … excessively hard to enactment him connected the witnesser basal with his service of lawyers,” Jauregui told jurors.

Although charges person been brought against much than 930 individuals successful the Jan. 6 onslaught and a peculiar counsel is investigating Trump, Thursday’s dueling opening statements successful a national tribunal blocks from the Capitol crystallized a large question inactive unanswered aft 2 years: Who should yet carnivore the top transgression work for that day’s events?

Prosecutors earlier person suggested Proud Boys members played an outsize relation successful the violence. But for the archetypal clip successful a 90-minute statement punctuated by the defendants’ ain recorded words, videos and photographs connected societal and encrypted media, the authorities asserted that the palmy breach of the Capitol was not the merchandise of a spontaneous, misguided mob but the effect of a preplanned battle by dedicated extremists.

The defendants, connected the different hand, insisted they gathered successful Washington to enactment Trump arsenic they had astatine earlier D.C. rallies and had nary different plans. They brought nary arms, assaulted nary 1 and could not person anticipated that Capitol Police would beryllium unprepared, their defence said.

“A crippled to usage unit that did not impact weapons?” defence lawyer Nicholas D. Smith asked rhetorically.

Instead, defence attorneys urged jurors to redirect their emotions implicit the historical onslaught astatine Trump. They are not unsocial — the House prime committee investigating the events of Jan. 6 precocious recommended charging the erstwhile president with crimes that see obstructing an authoritative proceeding, 1 of the charges lodged against Tarrio.

Tarrio and his co-defendants — Ethan Nordean, of Auburn, Wash.; Joe Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Fla.; Dominic Pezzola, of Rochester, N.Y.; and Zachary Rehl, of Philadelphia — person pleaded not blameworthy to a 10-count indictment. Two charges they look are punishable by up to 20 years successful prison: conspiring to reason by unit national authorization oregon the inauguration of Joe Biden arsenic president, and conspiring to obstruct Congress’s associated session.

In court, Tarrio sipped from a solid of h2o and Pezzola stared up with his manus to his chin arsenic McCullough laid retired the lawsuit against them to a assemblage of 8 women and 7 men.

According to McCullough, the Proud Boys the time aft the Nov. 3, 2020, predetermination began “calling for warfare due to the fact that their favored campaigner was not elected.” Trump falsely claimed the predetermination was stolen, called demonstrators to Washington successful November and December, past aboriginal that period announced a “wild” protestation successful D.C. connected Jan. 6 erstwhile Congress met.

Prosecutors alleged that for that day’s peculiar operations, Tarrio handpicked co-defendants Nordean, Biggs and Rehl to pb an ironically named “Ministry of Self-Defense.”

Until then, Proud Boys were champion known for engaging successful thoroughfare fights with their perceived enemies successful the leftist antifa movement, earlier Trump famously refused to denounce the radical during a statesmanlike predetermination statement successful September 2020, urging them alternatively to “stand backmost and basal by.”

On Jan. 6, portion Tarrio monitored events from Baltimore, the trio marched to the Capitol with astir 200 different men, joined the archetypal question that surged onto the Capitol grounds and fanned retired other constabulary lines, the authorities said. There, they pressed guardant until they made their mode inside, led by Pezzola, who was recorded smashing with a stolen constabulary riot shield the archetypal model of the gathering to beryllium breached, McCullough said.

“These gentlemen did not basal back, they did not basal by,” McCullough told jurors.

Instead, McCullough showed video clips of Proud Boys members astatine the forefront of attacks connected constabulary astatine the Capitol, wherever they had assembled that greeting adjacent earlier Trump spoke to supporters astatine a White House Ellipse rally.

“Let’s tempest the f------ Capitol,” yelled 1 Proud Boys subordinate who aboriginal bullrushed constabulary lines guarding a cardinal stairway. “Let’s not f------ outcry that,” Nordean admonished connected video.

While Proud Boys said their preparations for unit were lone intended arsenic self-defense successful lawsuit they were attacked by anti-Trump activists, McCullough showed jurors a substance by Tarrio to others connected Dec. 27 hinting astatine their existent plans: “Whispers … 1776.”

“‘Whispers,’ arsenic successful this is simply a secret,” McCullough said. “‘1776,’ arsenic successful revolution.”

The Proud Boys did not travel to D.C. connected Jan. 6 to spell up against antifa, helium said: “They were coming to halt the certification of the predetermination for Joe Biden.”

Even discarding the defendants’ pre-Jan. 6 talk, their actions that time revealed their conspiracy, McCullough said.

“Make nary mistake … we did this,” Tarrio wrote others connected an encrypted chat astatine 2:41 p.m., according to worldly shown successful court.

“These are his words, his thoughts, conscionable minutes aft Congress had been forced to halt its work,” McCullough said.

“January 6th volition beryllium a time successful infamy,” Biggs wrote that evening, aft Pezzola earlier recorded himself with “a triumph smoke” successful the Capitol.

“A time successful infamy,” McCullough repeated. “That is however President Roosevelt described the onslaught connected Pearl Harbor that sent america into World War II.” A triumph smoke, helium told jurors, “like you mightiness spot by a sports squad aft a large game.”

When their crook came, defence attorneys accused the authorities of cherry-picking statements retired of discourse by their clients, and urged jurors from the overwhelmingly Democratic country to “put speech politics” and prosecutors’ attempts to manipulate their emotions “so you hatred them, you hatred the Proud Boys.”

Jauregui, lawyer for the Afro-Cuban Tarrio, called the Proud Boys mostly a “drinking group” that was inclusive of each races and intersexual preferences, though civilian rights monitors accidental the radical progressively targets cheery and transgender people and has been utilized by achromatic nationalists to enlistee followers.

“What they stock is an ideology. The Proud Boys deliberation that Western civilization is the best. … The Proud Boys deliberation America’s the best,” Jauregui said. “That’s what they combat for. It’s not a governmental thing, it’s not a radical thing. And they judge successful escaped speech. They judge you should accidental immoderate you want.”

Proud Boys leaders discussed protecting themselves due to the fact that they believed D.C. constabulary and national prosecutors responded inadequately to the stabbing of subordinate Jeremy Bertino extracurricular Harry’s Bar successful downtown Washington aft the December pro-Trump rally. Bertino has pleaded blameworthy to seditious conspiracy and agreed to cooperate with the government.

Tarrio was not adjacent successful Washington connected Jan. 6 due to the fact that helium was arrested 2 days earlier and expelled by a justice pending proceedings connected charges that during that aforesaid rally helium set a church’s stolen “Black Lives Matter” emblem connected fire and returned to D.C. with an unregistered high-capacity ammunition magazine. He aboriginal pleaded blameworthy to those charges and served 4 months successful jail.

Jauregui and Smith said prosecutors had warped and twisted innocent, if sometimes “offensive,” chatter into an insurrectionist plot. Smith said defendants would telephone arsenic witnesses aggregate authorities informants embedded successful the group, including those who said Nordean tried to halt violence.

“You volition spot astatine proceedings nary grounds that supports the government’s conspiracy assertion that these defendants plotted earlier January 6 to bash what the authorities alleges,” Smith said.

“Over and implicit and over,” Smith said, “the authorities has been told by witnesses determination was nary program for January 6. You volition spot adjacent the government’s ain cooperating witnesses said that.”

Tarrio whitethorn person “made it easy” for investigators by celebrating that riot, but helium and different members were mostly posturing, their attorneys said. The radical was followed that time by a documentary filmmaker, and Smith said informants would “testify that the march to the Capitol was conscionable for the cameras.”

Another informant texted his FBI handler astatine noon arsenic archetypal barriers were being breached that “PB did not bash it nor inspire,” alternatively blaming “herd mentality.”

Pezzola lawyer Roger Roots said his lawsuit smoked to observe lone the takeover of the Capitol, not the obstruction of Congress. Roots accused constabulary and prosecutors of overreacting by firing teardrop state and projectiles into the assemblage and criminalizing “a six-hour hold of Congress.”

Rehl lawyer Carmen Hernandez said Rehl went to the Capitol expecting speeches. He didn’t participate until aft the electoral ballot number had stopped, and that “not a azygous message” of 160,000 reviewed by the FBI showed that helium “intended to oregon planned to ... disrupt the proceedings.”

As they watched successful court, the 5 defendants sat calmly, neatly groomed and wearing acheronian suits, ties and achromatic shirts — 4 wore dark-rimmed glasses — successful opposition to their agitated expressions arsenic depicted successful authorities videos.

Prosecutors acknowledged to jurors that the Proud Boys enactment arsenic a full “is not connected proceedings today.”

“Many Proud Boys who were aggravated astir the election, they took nary portion successful the ngo connected January 6,” McCullough said.

But they showed the assemblage the defendants’ ain societal media posts, including the flashing words “kill them” and clips of groups of men beating others connected the streets astatine night. One station from December 2020 by Tarrio featured Pezzola against a fiery backdrop labeled “Lords of War” and “#J6,” and different included a hype video posted by Rehl showing Trump lawyer Sidney Powell saying she would “release the Kraken.”

“This was the representation these defendants sought to beforehand successful their combat to support Donald Trump successful office,” McCullough said, concluding. “These ‘lords of war’ joined unneurotic to halt the statesmanlike transportation of power.”