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Proud Boys leader charged with conspiracy in Jan. 6 Capitol riot

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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:


  • The former chairman of the right-wing group Proud Boys was arrested in Miami on Tuesday on conspiracy charges related to the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.
  • Henry “Enrique” Tarrio is being charged alongside five co-defendants affiliated with the Proud Boys.
  • The indictment alleges that Tarrio “led the advance planning and remained in contact with other members of the Proud Boys during their breach of the Capitol.”

The leader of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group was arrested Tuesday on a conspiracy charge for his suspected role in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

Proud Boys former chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio was arrested by police in Washington two days before the riot. He was charged with vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church during a protest in December 2020. The day before the Capitol was attacked, a judge ordered Tarrio to stay out of Washington. He later served a five-month sentence in that case.

More than three dozen people charged in the Capitol siege have been identified by federal authorities as Proud Boys leaders, members or associates.

A New York man pleaded guilty in December to storming the U.S. Capitol with fellow Proud Boys members. Matthew Greene was the first Proud Boys member to publicly plead guilty to conspiring with other members to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote.

On the morning of Jan. 6, Proud Boys members met at the Washington Monument and marched to the Capitol before then-President Donald Trump finished speaking to thousands of supporters near the White House.

Just before Congress convened a joint session to certify the election results, a group of Proud Boys followed a crowd of people who breached barriers at a pedestrian entrance to the Capitol grounds, an indictment says. Several Proud Boys also entered the Capitol building itself after the mob smashed windows and forced open doors.

Prosecutors have said the Proud Boys arranged for members to communicate using specific frequencies on Baofeng radios. The Chinese-made devices can be programmed for use on hundreds of frequencies, making them difficult for outsiders to eavesdrop.

In December, a federal judge refused to dismiss an earlier indictment charging four alleged leaders of the far-right Proud Boys with conspiracy. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly rejected defense attorneys’ arguments that the four men — Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Charles Donohoe — were charged with conduct that is protected by the First Amendment right to free speech.

Nordean, Biggs, Rehl and Donohoe remain jailed while awaiting a trial scheduled for May.

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Tarrio didn’t immediately respond to a text message seeking comment on his arrest and indictment.

Proud Boys members describe the group as a politically incorrect men’s club for “Western chauvinists.” Its members frequently have brawled with antifascist activists at rallies and protests. Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, who founded the Proud Boys in 2016, sued the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling it as a hate group.

Source: AOL

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2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. 2004done

    March 12, 2022 at 6:00 am

    With all these arrests of “right-wingers,” we can still RESPOND to the summer ’22 violent demonstrationS (sure to occur even though right-wingers are imprisoned) on Election Day, November 8th. [Vote in-person, it’s a slightly-safer vote than mail-in ballots].

  2. Fred G Sanford

    March 15, 2022 at 10:27 pm

    The January 6th, corrupt unselect committee. Those Luciferians are always fucking over somebody. Losers!

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