Trial begins for Proud Boys leaders charged with seditious conspiracy - CNN

CNN  — 

Leaders of the right-wing extremist Proud Boys volition look proceedings starting Monday for their alleged conspiracy to halt Joe Biden from assuming the presidency, different trial for the Justice Department’s effort to punish the far-right governmental question connected to fierce allies of erstwhile President Donald Trump.

Federal prosecutors mean to beryllium that 4 leaders of the Proud Boys – Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl – plotted and broadly encouraged unit successful the physique up to January 6.

When the riot, allegedly initiated by a subordinate of the Proud Boys, broke retired astatine the Capitol, Nordean, Biggs and Rehl stood backmost portion others – including the 5th suspect Dominic Pezzola – took action, prosecutors argue.

To beryllium their case, prosecutors volition apt diagnostic the grounds of respective Proud Boys who pleaded blameworthy to charges connected to the conspiracy including 2 alleged leaders and adjacent allies of Tarrio. Prosecutors volition besides heavy beryllium connected the defendants’ ain words successful texts and societal media posts, arsenic good arsenic recorded readying meetings and videos from the riot.

Attorneys for the 5 defendants person argued that they were simply protesting connected January 6 and person besides suggested that the authorities is overcharging their clients. In tribunal hearings, defence attorneys person besides said the radical had nary real, cohesive program to onslaught the Capitol that day.

The proceedings against the Proud Boys is scheduled to commencement connected Monday with assemblage enactment successful DC national court. All 5 defendants person pleaded not blameworthy to the indictment and look a maximum condemnation of 20 years successful a national prison.

Enrique Tarrio, 38, is the longtime president of the Proud Boys.

Ethan Nordean, 31, is simply a Proud Boys person from Washington state. Nordean, who goes by the moniker “Rufio Panman” aft a subordinate of Peter Pan’s Lost Boys, roseate to prominence successful 2017 aft a video of him knocking retired an anti-fascist protester successful 1 punch went viral.

Joseph Biggs, 38, is an Army seasoned and Proud Boys person from Florida. Biggs antecedently worked arsenic a analogous for Infowars, a far-right outlet that peddles mendacious conspiracy theories.

Zachary Rehl, 36, is simply a erstwhile Marine and the president of his section Philadelphia section of the Proud Boys.

Dominic Pezzola, 44, is simply a Proud Boy from New York who goes by the nicknames “Spaz,” “Spazzo,” and “Spazzolini.” Pezzola is simply a erstwhile Marine.

According to the indictment, leaders of the Proud Boys began readying for a “war” successful the contiguous aftermath of the 2020 statesmanlike election.

“If Biden steals this election, [the Proud Boys] volition beryllium governmental prisoners. We won’t spell quietly…I promise,” Tarrio allegedly posted online successful the days aft the predetermination was called for Joe Biden.

By December, members of Proud Boys had started attending Washington, DC, rallies en masse. Some of the protests broke retired successful unit and the Proud Boys, who are known for thoroughfare fighting, were successful the middle.

When Trump announced the January 6 rally connected Twitter, Tarrio and others decided to make a caller nationalist section of the Proud Boys for the lawsuit called the Ministry of Self Defense (MOSD) according to tribunal documents. The MOSD was allegedly made up of much than 90 “hand selected members” and “rally boys” – members who were consenting to interruption the instrumentality – and were encouraged not to deterioration the accepted Proud Boys azygous of achromatic and yellowish polos erstwhile they came to DC.

The MOSD, Tarrio allegedly informed caller members, would person a “top down structure.” He, Biggs and Nordean were viewed arsenic the MOSD leaders, prosecutors say. Several others including Rehl were besides portion of MOSD leadership.

Tarrio was arrested successful Washington, DC, connected January 4, 2021, for burning a DC church’s Black Lives Matter banner successful December and bringing high-capacity firearm magazines into the district. He was ordered by a justice to permission the city. In encrypted enactment chats, Tarrio allegedly told different members helium hoped his apprehension could animate radical to lash retired violently against police.

A radical of astir 100 Proud Boys met astatine the Washington Monument the greeting of January 6, prosecutors say. Several of the members, including Biggs and Rehl, allegedly had walkie-talkie benignant radios, and Nordean and Biggs some utilized a bullhorn to nonstop the radical arsenic they marched to the Capitol.

The radical arrived astatine the Capitol astir 15 minutes earlier Congress was acceptable to commencement the associated proceeding to certify the 2020 election, according to videos from that day, and walked to an entree constituent connected the westbound broadside of the building. A Proud Boy named Ryan Samsel was the archetypal to complaint and breach barricades connected the Capitol grounds, prosecutors say, and helium spoke to Biggs conscionable 1 infinitesimal earlier acting.

As the conflict astatine the Capitol ensued, members of the manus selected MOSD including Pezzola tin beryllium seen successful videos consistently connected the beforehand lines of the riot, prosecutors say. Nordean, Biggs and Rehl allegedly stayed back, opting to travel erstwhile others had already breached done constabulary lines.

When the mob arrived astatine the Capitol doors, Pezzola utilized a stolen constabulary riot shield to smash a window, prosecutors say. The archetypal members of the mob to breach the Capitol building, allegedly including Pezzola and Biggs, entered done that window. The Senate suspended its league minutes later.

Tarrio watched the chaos unfold from Baltimore, allegedly posting publically connected societal media “Don’t f***ing leave” and “Make nary mistake…We did this…”

The Justice Department has already successfully prosecuted a seditious conspiracy lawsuit against leaders of the Oath Keepers, which could enactment arsenic a exemplary for prosecutors arsenic they crook to the Proud Boys.

Both Oath Keepers laminitis Stewart Rhodes and Tarrio did not participate the Capitol during the hours-long breach, but during his trial, prosecutors successfully argued that Rhodes acted similar a wide overseeing his troops connected January 6, a communicative prosecutors volition apt employment against Tarrio.

Unlike the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys person a agelong past of convulsive enactment – a past that prosecutors volition apt usage to person a assemblage that the radical has a propensity toward unit and that the riot astatine the Capitol was not retired of character.

In erstwhile tribunal filings, prosecutors person said that Tarrio, Biggs, Nordean, Rehl and different Proud Boys leaders encouraged their followers to “turn your brains disconnected a small bit,” and utilized those followers arsenic “tools” to execute their larger program to interfere with the associated legislature proceeding.

If the Justice Department secures convictions for Tarrio and different Proud Boys leaders, the radical volition proceed to exist, Rachel Carroll Rivas, a elder probe expert astatine the Southern Poverty Law Center who studies extremism told CNN.

“It’s not hierarchical similar a batch of militia movements,” Rivas told CNN, noting the radical doesn’t beryllium connected immoderate 1 person to enactment and summation power.

The group’s goal, Rivas said, is focused connected “creating chaos, creating fearfulness done a consciousness of uncertainty and a deficiency of feeling of safety,” which she says is meant to pb less radical speaking up against the group.