Proud Boys trial : Police testify to ‘dire’ scene on Jan 6 as far-right group faces sedition charges

Five members of nationalist gang Proud Boys charged with seditious conspiracy for roles in January 6 attack

Five Proud Boys stand trial for part in Jan 6 riot

A second day of a trial for five members of far-right nationalist group the Proud Boys continued on Friday with testimony from a US Capitol Police officer and video and radio transmission audio evidence detailing the mob’s movements on 6 January, 2021, including one defendant using a stolen riot shield to bust out a window of the US Capitol.

Jurors will return to the court on 17 January for the trial involving former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and members Ethan Nordean, Joe Biggs, Dominic Pezzola and Zachary Rehl, who are charged with seditious conspiracy for their alleged roles in the riots. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison.

Federal prosecutors will try to convince a jury that the defendants conspired to forcefully oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power when a joint session of Congress convened to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.

In opening arguments, federal prosecutors said that the five men “took aim at the heart of democracy” by conspiring to storm the Capitol.

Key points

• Federal prosecutor says Proud Boys ‘took aim at heart of democracy'
• Enrique Tarrio’s lawyer says Trump ‘unleashed the mob’ on January 6
• Who are the Proud Boys?
• Why five Proud Boys members are on trial
• Judge allows prosecutors to use Trump’s ‘stand back and stand by’ remark as evidence

[12 January 2023 06:00 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the trial of five members of the far-right group Proud Boys.

[12 January 2023 07:02 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Five Proud Boys members to go on trial today

Five members of the far-right nationalist Proud Boys group charged with seditious conspiracy will go on trial today.

The defendants are former group leader Enrique Tarrio, members Ethan “Rufio Panman” Nordean, Joe Biggs, Dominic Pezzola and Zachary Rehl.

The US justice department has argued that the men were among the first rioters to break past barriers on the Capitol grounds before 1pm.

In addition to seditious conspiracy related to the , they have been charged with eight other crimes including obstructing law enforcement and destruction of government property.

The men face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

[12 January 2023 08:00 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Why five Proud Boys are on trial two years after January 6

Two days before the attack on the US Capitol, the now-former chairman of the far-right nationalist Proud Boys gang was arrested in Washington DC moments after stepping off a plane from Miami.

Enrique Tarrio was wanted by police after he admitted to tearing down and burning a Black Lives Matter flag outside a historically Black church in the nation’s capital during December riots connected to a protest supporting Donald Trump’s bogus claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.

On 6 January 2021, Tarrio watched the insurrection unfold from a hotel in Baltimore. Two years later, he is among five members of the self-described “Western chauvinist” gang charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the mob’s assault.

After jurors found two members of the far-right militia group the Oath Keepers guilty of seditious conspiracy against the government in November, federal prosecutors are now hoping to convict another high-profile group of rioters connected to the January 6 assault.

Alex Woodward reports.

[12 January 2023 09:00 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Jury finalised after 10 days to hear sedition trial

A jury has been chosen for the seditious conspiracy trial of former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four other members of the far-right group charged with plotting to stop the transfer of presidential power.

Jury selection took 10 days of questioning as many potential jurors expressed negative views about the Proud Boys. The panel ultimately chosen Monday includes seven men and nine women, WUSA-TV reported.

Jurors are expected to hear attorneys’ opening statements in Washington’s federal court after the panel is sworn in.

Read more here.

[12 January 2023 10:00 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Prosecutors allowed to use Trump’s ‘stand back and stand by’ remark

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that prosecutors can use video of former president Donald Trump telling the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” in the trial against five members of the far-right group.

District judge Timothy Kelly said that the former president’s comments showed “an additional motive to advocate for Mr Trump (and) engage in the charged conspiracy” to keep him in power, according to CNN.

Earlier in 2020 during a presidential debate, Mr Trump was asked if he would condemn white supremacists and militia groups. Then Democratic candidate Joe Biden mentioned the Proud Boys.

“Proud Boys – stand back and stand by,” Mr Trump responded.

[12 January 2023 11:00 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Defence lawyer cries juror discrimination at Proud Boys trial

A defence lawyer for one of the Proud Boys members is crying discrimination, claiming that several potential jurors at the trial were rejected by prosecutors because they were white and Republican.

Nicholas Smith, attorney for Ethan Nordean — who is facing more than a dozen charges — challenged the government’s use of peremptory challenges in the jury selection process.

The lawyer argued that the prosecution’s decision to cut multiple “white, male Republican[s],” as well as a Roman Catholic priest, from the panel amounted to discrimination, according to Law and Crime.

“None of these jurors expressed any sympathy for rioters or Donald Trump,” Mr Smith said, adding: “There is no possible explanation that I can think of for cutting these jurors except for prohibited characteristics.”

US district judge Timothy Kelly ruled that removing the priest from the pool wasn’t discrimination since it was done because of a concern about his professional experience and the claims about white or male jurors didn’t hold weight as both demographic groups are still represented on the panel.

[12 January 2023 12:00 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Secret Service flagged White House visit by Proud Boys leader

Transcripts of depositions released by the House January 6 select committee show the Secret Service notified White House leaders after Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was admitted onto the 18-acre complex for a tour.

Mr Tarrio, who is currently on trial for seditious conspiracy related to his group’s alleged role in the worst attack on the Capitol since 1814, attended a tour of the executive mansion on 12 December 2020, the same day he vandalised a Black Lives Matter sign by setting it ablaze after stealing it from a Black church.

At the time, his status as chairman of the pro-Trump extremist group was widely known, and a House January 6 committee transcript of an interview with ex-White House deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato shows his entry onto the White House grounds was noted and relayed to agents on then-president Donald Trump’s protective detail by the Secret Service Protective Intelligence Division.

Andrew Feinberg has more.

[12 January 2023 13:00 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Who are the Proud Boys?

The violent mob of Donald Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol building on 6 January in a bid to stop Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s election win included members of a number of far-right fringe groups, notably QAnon and the Proud Boys.

The outgoing president was explicitly invited to condemn both collectives during the election campaign and declined to so, apparently reluctant to risk even the votes of dangerous extremists.

The former is a cult-like group that believes a covert operative is working at the heart of government to root out Satanic pedophiles running the Democratic Party, a mutation of the earlier “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, and is a relatively recent phenomenon but the latter is somewhat more established.

Read more here.

[12 January 2023 14:00 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Rioter who assaulted cops at Capitol gets five years in prison

A Tennessee man who authorities say came to Washington ahead of the 6 January 2021 riot prepared for violence in a car full of weapons and assaulted officers who were trying to defend the Capitol was sentenced in December to more than five years behind bars.

Ronald Sandlin, 35, of Millington, Tennessee, pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers.

Two other men were separately each sentenced to four years in prison for their actions connected to the riot.

[12 January 2023 14:30 · Alex Woodward]

Not even a ‘zombie apocalypse’ will stop Proud Boys from moving forward with trial

Before opening arguments have started, the Proud Boys trial has been mired in issues surrounding the jury selection, admissable evidence, and conflicts and other problems with defense attorneys, who include an attorney for Alex Jones who was suspended from practicising law in his home state, complicating the trial defense.

An attorney for Ethan Nordean, one of five Proud Boys on trial for seditious conspiracy charges related to the January 6 insurrection, wrote in a filing that Mr Nordean “wants the court to clearly understand his position: he has not moved, nor will he move, for a trial continuance.”

“Nordean has been detained pretrial for nearly two years, since April 2021,” he added in the filing on 10 January. “There is no circumstance that would prompt Nordean to move for, or consent to, a trial continuance, up to and including a zombie apocalypse.”