Proud Boys Leader Enrique Tarrio Charged With Capitol Riot Conspiracy

The longtime chairman of the street-brawling Proud Boys group was arrested in Miami and charged with conspiracy Tuesday over his function in the failed rebel on the Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021.

In a statement, prosecutors alleged Enrique Tarrio and 5 different defendants have been leaders or members of a particular Proud Boys detachment referred to as the “Ministry of Self Defense” and that they “conspired to corruptly obstruct, influence, and impede an official proceeding, the certification of the Electoral College vote.” Prosecutors added that Tarrio allegedly met with the chief of the far-right wannabe militia group the Oath Keepers the day earlier than the Capitol riot.

Multiple members of the “Western chauvinist” Proud Boys had been accused of lending their assist to the fascist mob that stormed the Capitol in a last-ditch try to safe Donald Trump a second presidential time period, however Tarrio himself had to this point escaped being named in an indictment. On Tuesday, the Department of Justice added him to an current case involving 5 different Proud Boys members: Ethan Nordean, Joe Biggs, Zachary Rehl, Charles Donohoe, and Dominic “Spaz” Pezzola. The six are named in an indictment with fees that embrace obstruction, aiding and abetting, theft of U.S. property, and conspiracy. Tarrio joins the listing of over 770 different people charged in relation to the mob assault.

While Tarrio was not bodily current on the Capitol, federal authorities stated, the Proud Boys cadre “directed, mobilized, and led members of the crowd onto the Capitol grounds and into the Capitol, leading to dismantling of metal barricades, destruction of property, and assaults on law enforcement.” DC police beforehand arrested Tarrio on Jan. 4, 2021 for burning a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic African-American church in December 2020, in addition to illegally carrying high-capacity magazines. He was convicted and served time in DC jail; the phrases of his launch included an order to remain out of town.

Numerous Proud Boys members did be part of the mob that beat its approach by Capitol Police into the constructing—forcing the evacuation of Congress, destroying and stealing property inside, injuring over 100 regulation enforcement officers, and inflicting 5 deaths. Prosecutors wrote that Tarrio issued directions for members to attend the rally earlier than the riot “incognito.” He allegedly participated in a Telegram chat monitoring and coordinating the actions of members through the riot as nicely. The charged Proud Boys additionally raised funds for tools within the lead-up to the occasion and communicated with each other by way of radio on the day of the assault, the indictment states. Materials circulating between the Proud Boys earlier than Jan. 6 talked about occupying buildings as a part of a “1776”-style revolution.

Tarrio isn’t the primary chief of an extremist group to seemingly dodge fees for Jan. 6 solely to be busted later. Stewart Rhodes, the pinnacle of the far-right wannabe militia group the Oath Keepers, was charged earlier this 12 months after federal investigators obtained entry to encrypted Signal chats wherein the group’s management coordinated members’ involvement within the riot. Those chats included conferences about “unconventional warfare,” “convoy operations,” and discussions of which firearms to carry to a “massively bloody revolution.” Likewise in Tarrio’s case, authorities are citing an in depth backlog of chat messages and social media posts as proof within the case. The indictment states that Tarrio met with Rhodes for half-hour in a parking storage on Jan. 5 for a dialog throughout which the Capitol was “referenced.”

After Tarrio’s arrest on Jan. 4 for burning the flag, the indictment states, members of the Ministry of Self Defense group urged one another to destroy encrypted chat information in order that police couldn’t acquire them from their chief’s telephone. By the following day, nonetheless, they’d added Tarrio to a brand new management group wherein members freely mentioned the assault. Various Proud Boys together with Biggs documented themselves coming into the Capitol grounds for on-line posts.

Tarrio then traveled to Baltimore and spent a lot of Jan. 6 cheerleading the assault on social media and, in accordance with prosecutors, tried to contact Nordean and Biggs whereas they have been in the constructing.

In January 2021, Tarrio was publicly revealed to be a police informant who had ratted out over a dozen criminals almost a decade earlier than, according to Reuters. That information didn’t sit nicely with the Proud Boys, who’ve since misplaced cohesion as a nationwide motion and splintered right into a collection of native chapters. Both the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers are going through a separate lawsuit from the DC lawyer normal’s workplace aiming to bankrupt their operations. Tarrio’s lawyer, J. Daniel Hull, declined to remark.

The Proud Boys have been initially based by Gavin McInnes, who had co-founded Vice Media however has since morphed right into a full-time far-right clown. Trump infamously addressed the group throughout a September 2020 presidential debate, responding to a query about their assist for him by telling them to “stand back and stand by.” The assertion was broadly interpreted, together with by Proud Boys members themselves, as an endorsement.