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
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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.
Defense claims Proud Boys plan was to ‘go back’ to Trump’s rally
Defense attorney Nick Smith continues his opening statement, arguing that jurors will “see evidence the plan was not to stay at the Capitol, but to go back to the [Trump] rally.”
He then showed a photo of the riot, with client Ethan Nordean circled in green. He said Mr Nordean was “stopping an individual from shoving a police officer,” contrary to prosecutors’ claims.
Federal prosecutors have alleged that Mr Nordean – aka “Rufio Panman” – marched in Washington with defendant Joe Biggs before entering the Capitol after a group of Proud Boys broke a window, according to government filings. Two days after the mob’s assault, he posted a picture of a Capitol officer using pepper spray with the caption “honorable oath breakers”.
Government informants within the Proud Boys can corroborate defense arguments, attorney claims
Defense attorney Nick Smith says government informants who were with the Proud Boys on January 6 can corroborate claims that the march was “just for the cameras” and there was no plan to storm the Capitol.
“You’ll hear them testify that Proud Boys told them to avoid law enforcement,” Mr Smith said.
He claims one informant was at the “big bang” event when protesters first jumped the barricades, and that informant claimed in a text that the Proud Boys did not start the push.
Mr Smith also said the Proud Boys didn’t scrub their Telegram channels to destroy evidence but because they feared that there were informants within the group, which was apparently an accurate assessment, Mr Smith said. Defense attorneys have previously said there were as many as eight informants among the Proud Boys at the time. Earlier this week, Mr Smith also called far-right conspiracy theories that the informants were responsible for the riot “slander.”
“In the media there’s a swirling notion that undercover informants instigated January 6,” he told the court on 11 January. “That’s not our belief … I think it’s slander actually.”
Defense for Enrique Tarrio will make opening statements after short break
Defense arguments for Enrique Tarrio, a former chair of the Proud Boys who is the only one of the five men on trial who did not enter the Capitol on January 6, are up next.
Tarrio was arrested in Washington DC two days before the assault; he was wanted by police for burning a Black Lives Matter flag outside a historically Black church during street riots in the city after a “Stop the Steal” rally in December of 2020.
During the arrest, police found Tarrio was carrying two high-capacity magazines, compatible with AR-16 and M4 rifles, in his bag. Both were empty.
A judge ordered him out of the city before the the protests and rallies on 6 January, 2021.
Tarrio’s defense attorney claims his client is a ‘scapegoat’
Enrique Tarrio’s attorney Sabino Jauregui claimed her client is a “scapegoat” for the actions on the ground on January 6
“Scapegoat is a word you’re going to be hearing a lot in this trial ... We definitely have a scapegoat in this case. And that’s my client, Henry Enrique Tarrio,” he said.
Tarrio “had zero communication with the people at the Capitol on January 6” and “was nowhere near the Capitol on January 6,” he said.
He said that prosecutors do not have any evidence that shows Tarrio “planned, orchestrated, incited, did anything for that riot to occur on January 6.”
Enrique Tarrio’s attorney downplays Proud Boys as a ‘drinking club’
Enrique Tarrio’s attorney said that the Proud Boys “are not a racist, sexist, homophobic organisation,” calling them a “drinking club.”
Sabino Jauregui cointed to a gay pride flag in a photo being flown by “gay Proud Boys,” before saying it’s an “all inclusive” group which is also “Western chauvinist.”
He claimed that because the Proud Boys hate political correctness, they try to “out offend” each other, explaining away while their Telegram channels are full of “offensive comments.”
“Enrique was the very public face of the Proud Boys,” he said “That’s why he’s the scape goat. If the government takes down Enrique Tarrio, it takes down the whole Proud Boy organisation. That’s why they added him to this case.”
Prosecutors and defense attorneys have stressed to the jury that the group is not on trial, but Mr Jauregui’s comments appear to downplay the group’s behaviours and well-publicised actions and distance members’ affiliation to a far-right nationalist gang designated a terrorist organisation by the Canadian government.
The group, founded in 2016 by Vice co-founder turned far-right commentator Gavin McInnes, has been accused of using an ironic or self-aware veneer of white male aggression to launder white nationalist, antisemitic and anti-LGBT+ tropes.
Across his platforms, Mr McInnes “carved out an ideological space for frustrated young men to rally around” by arguing for the superiority of white western culture and against white liberal “guilt”, feminism, Islam and LGBT+ people, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Over the last several years, the Proud Boys have emerged as a “fascistic, right-wing political bloc” relying on street-level violence in concert with right-wing media and Republican elected officials, according to SPLC senior research analyst Cassie Miller. Recently, members of the group have harrassed drag queen story-telling events at libraries and amplified “groomer” smears aimed at LGBT+ people.
Enrique Tarrio’s attorney blames Trump for ‘unleashing the mob'
Sabino Jauregui said there is no evidence that his client Enrique Tarrio advocated “storming the Capitol” or “planning to storm the Capitol.”
“You’re not going to see it. All you’re going to see in innuendo,” he said.
Discussing a damning “we did this” message on Telegram that Tarrio posted after the riots, he said it was Tarrio’s reply to a message saying “antifa stormed the Capitol,” the attorney said.
“He was replying and saying ‘we did this,’ as not the Proud Boys, but Trump supporters over all. It’s not that he was celebrating what happened,” he added.
Mr Jauregui also blamed Trump for “unleashing that mob” on January 6 “but he’s not on trial here today”.
Defense attorneys have condemned the Capitol attack. Dominic Pezzola’s lawyer called it ‘one of the lamest’
In court hearings and documents surrounding the assault on the US Capitol, defense attorneys have largely conceded that January 6 was an embarassment or a vile attack on democracy while asserting that their clients’ actions did not amount to serious crimes or conspiracy against the government.
A defense attorney for Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola – who was filmed breaking a window as a mob breached the building – has claimed that “the entire case is about a six hour delay of Congress.”
Roger Roots said that “the government makes a big deal about this six hour recess.”
“If [the Capitol riot] was an attack, it might have been one of the lamest attacks one could imagine,” he said in his opening arguments. “The attacks carried few weapons other than megaphones ... Imagine an insurrection in which the insurrections were in complete compliance with DC gun laws.”
Mr Pezzola is accused of using a riot shield taken from an officer to break a window. Mr Pezzola appears to have not initially broken it. Mr Roots argued since damage was already done, Mr Pezzola smashing the remainder of it out with his shield “did not cause additional damage.”
“These are not thousand dollar windows,” he said.
Enrique Tarrio’s attorney blames Trump for ‘unleashing the mob’ on January 6 at Proud Boys sedition trial
A defense attorney for former longtime Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio blamed former president Donald Trump for “unleashing that mob” on 6 January, 2021, as a crowd of his supporters stormed the US Capitol.
Sabino Jauregui – whose client is charged with seditious conspiracy along with four other members of the far-right nationalist gang – said it was Mr Trump who told his supporters to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell,” not Tarrio or members of his group.
“Enrique didn’t say that. He didn’t say anything to anybody on the grounds of the Capitol. He just happens to be the leader of the Proud Boys,” Mr Jauregui said in his opening arguments in US District Court on 12 January.
He said federal prosecutors were unable to place blame for the riot on alleged FBI informants or security failures within the administration and law enforcement and its leadership, and “instead they go for the easy target”.
More from the opening statements for the high-profile defendant here:
Enrique Tarrio’s attorney blames Trump for ‘unleashing the mob’ on January 6
Longtime leader of far-right gang and four others are charged with seditious conspiracy for Capitol assault
Pezzola attorney downplays video of client stealing riot shield from police officer
Defense attorney Roger Roots showed jurors footage of his client Dominic Pezzola violently taking a riot shield from an officer on January 6, a shield he would later use to bust out a window at the Capitol.
Mr Pezzola was additionally charged with robbery.
Mr Roots argued that video shows his client admonishing an officer because a protester had been hurt.
“This is what they call a robbery,” he said while showing the video.
Defense repeatedly plays video of Proud Boy declaring victory and smoking a cigar after breaking into Capitol
Defense attorney Roger Roots played a video to jurors of his client Dominic Pezzola smoking a cigar inside the Capitol and saying “this is f****** awesome” after breaking a window with an officer’s riot shield.
He played the video five times.
“Victory smoke in the Capitol, boys,” he says in the video. “This is f****** awesome. I knew we could take this motherf***** over [if we] just tried hard enough.”
Mr Roots argued that his “victory” was not the mob’s disruption of Congress but his success in “taking the building”.
He said he wants jurors to think of it as “the not guilty video”.
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