Four Proud Boys convicted of seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 case

Tarrio’s conviction Thursday was a major victory for US prosecutors, who’ve argued that leaders of the Proud Boys and another far-right group, the Oath Keepers, planned for weeks before Jan. 6 to keep Trump in power. Jurors didn’t reach a unanimous verdict on some counts.

Earlier trials led to the convictions of six Oath Keepers on seditious conspiracy charges, including its leader Stewart Rhodes. Several other members of the two far-right groups have pleaded guilty.

At the Proud Boys trial over the past four months, prosecutors offered chat messages and videos, as well as testimony by police officers and two group members who pleaded guilty and cooperated with the government.

The five defendants agreed to use force to block Congress from certifying Biden’s election, prosecutors argued.

“The defendants want you to believe that they didn’t intend to stop the certification,” prosecutor Nadia Moore said in her closing argument. But, she said, chat messages showed “beyond the shadow of a doubt that these men were willing to do whatever it took to stop the certification.”

Tarrio was not in Washington on the day of the riot. He had been arrested two days earlier over the burning of a Black Lives Matter flag during a protest march weeks earlier.

A judge ordered him to leave town, and he was in a Baltimore hotel on Jan. 6. Prosecutors said Tarrio kept in touch with the other defendants, who entered the Capitol.

“Proud Of My Boys and my country,” Tarrio wrote in a social media post.

In his summation, Tarrio lawyer Nayib Hassan blamed the riot on Trump’s rhetoric and his anger.

“They want to use Enrique Tarrio as a scapegoat for Donald Trump and those in power,” Hassan argued.

Tarrio was an Internet troll who made egregious statements, but he had a First Amendment right to do so and he didn’t organize the attack, Hassan said.

“It wasn’t about controlling individuals or asking them to commit a crime,” Hassan said. “Enrique was an entertainer, a lover, and a razzle dazzler.”

Convicted along with Tarrio of seditious conspiracy were three high-ranking Proud Boys — Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean and Zachary Rehl. Jurors reached no verdict on that count against Dominic Pezzola, a Marine veteran who used a police officer’s riot shield to break a window at the Capitol, but convicted him of other felonies.

Pezzola and Rehl testified in their own defense, admitting wrongdoing but denying they engaged in seditious conspiracy. Pezzola attorney Steven Metcalf said in his summation that his client trespassed, grabbed a shield and broke a window.

“But seditious conspiracy? Are you kidding?,” Metcalf said.

Nordean attorney Nicholas Smith said prosecutors failed to prove the group planned the attack.

“It’s just a riot,” Smith said. “You don’t need a conspiracy to explain the facts.”

The trial was the last over Jan. 6 involving the Civil War-era seditious-conspiracy law. Prosecutors had to prove a defendant conspired to use force to oppose US government authority or to prevent, hinder or delay the execution of any US law.

More than 1,000 people have been arrested on charges related to Jan. 6, and about 600 have been convicted through guilty pleas or trials, according to the Justice Department. Many have been sentenced or face time behind bars, including one who got 10 years in prison.

The case is US v. Nordean et al, 21-cr-00175, US District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).