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

[13 January 2023 15:55 · Alex Woodward]

Capitol officer details ‘dire’ scene as Proud Boys led a mob towards the Capitol

In his testimony, US Capitol Police inspector Thomas Lloyd said he went to Mitch McConnell’s Senate office shortly after the mob breached Capitol barricades aroung 1pm.

There he had a “bird’s-eye view” of the scene, where he could see rioters “beating up my officers,” he said.

Jurors listened to Capitol police radio transmissions and were shown extensive footage of the crowds, including defendants Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl at the front of a mob.

Mr Lloyd discussed the use of “less lethal” teams on the ground, while radio transmissions heard from officers describing crowds pushing them and throwing projectiles.

“It was a very dire situation. The level of injuries of the officers,” My Lloyd said.

[13 January 2023 16:45 · Alex Woodward]

Jury sees video of Proud Boy defendant using stolen police riot shield to break Capitol window

Detailing the events leading up to the mob’s breach of the Capitol, prosecutors on Friday showed the jury video footage of Dominic Pezzola using a riot shield he stole from a police officer to bash the building’s window, which allowed a stream of rioters to enter.

Here’s what that looked like:

Yesterday, his defense attorney Roger Roots played a video of his client smoking a cigar inside the Capitol and saying “this is f****** awesome” after entering the Capitol.

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”.

[13 January 2023 17:06 · Alex Woodward]

Jurors see Proud Boy behind rioter in QAnon shirt who chased Eugene Goodman

The final image that jurors are left with before the trial breaks for a three-day weekend is Proud Boy defendant Dominic Pezzola, holding a stolen police riot shield while standing behind a convicted Capitol rioter who followed Eugene Goodman up a flight of stairs during the riot.

Judge Timothy Kelly, who is presiding over the Proud Boys seditious conspiracy trial, had sentenced Jensen to five years in prison after jurors found him guilty of seven felony counts of civil disorder and assaulting a police officer.

He was infamously photographed wearing a QAnon T-shirt while confronting US Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman, leading to his solo standoff with rioters as he led them up Capitol stairs in an attempt to keep them away from Senate offices, a move that prosecutors have argued saved lives and averted “bloodshed” inside the halls of Congress.

More on Jensen’s recent sentencing here:

[13 January 2023 17:15 · Alex Woodward]

Proud Boys trial closes second-day after police testimony about January 6 violence

The trial will pick back up at 9am ET on Tuesday following the Martin Luther King Jr Day holiday on Monday.

On Friday, the second day of the trial, jurors heard from US Capitol Police inspector Thomas Lloyd as well as video and audio evidence detailing the mob’s movements and actions of Proud Boys defendants on 6 January, 2021.

Prosecutors hope to secure another high-profile conviction against a second far-right organisation after members of the Oath Keepers militia were found guilty late last year.

Here’s a look at how that trial played out and what prosecutors showed the jury following the biggest conviction yet in the Justice Department’s sprawling investigation into January 6 crimes:

[13 January 2023 18:19 · Alex Woodward]

We may get to hear testimony from Richard Barnett, the man armed with a stun gun who put his feet up on Pelosi’s desk

(Getty Images)

Richard Barnett, a Capitol rioter photographed with his feet up on Nancy Pelosi’s desk (where he also allegedly left an obscene note for the then Speaker of the House), may testify in his own defense in his ongoing trial connected to his January 6 offenses.

Attorneys will decide over the weekend whether he will be called up in his trial that continues next week.

His charges include felony counts of obstruction of an official proceeding and civil disorder.

Prosecutors also are seeking felony enhancements for entering the building with what they’ve described as a “950,000 volt stun gun” walking stick.

In his note, he wrote, “Nancy, Bigo was here you b****,” according to photographs shared by prosecutors.

Ahead of the Capitol riot, he wrote several social media posts about his willingness to “fight” against Joe Biden’s presidency.

“My country will not be socialist as long as I am alive to fight,” Barnett wrote in one Facebook post on 21 December, 2020.

[13 January 2023 19:30 · Alex Woodward]

ICYMI: Enrique Tarrio’s attorney blames Trump for ‘unleashing the mob’ on January 6 at Proud Boys sedition trial

A defence 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.

Prosecutors and defence attorneys have stressed to the jury that the group itself is not on trial, but Mr Jauregui’s opening statement appear to downplay the group’s behaviours and well-publicised actions in an effort to distance defendants from the far-right nationalist gang designated a terrorist organisation by the Canadian government.

More from Day One of the Proud Boys trial:

[13 January 2023 20:30 · Alex Woodward]

Enrique Tarrio watched the insurrection on TV. Now he’s defending himself against charges of sedition.

Two days before the attack on the US Capitol, the now-former chairman of the far-right nationalist gang the Proud Boys 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.

Here’s what we know about the Proud Boys, the prosecution’s case and what happened in the days leading up to and during January 6:

[13 January 2023 21:30 · Alex Woodward]

How the Proud Boys attorneys stated their case on the trial’s opening day

The attorneys defending five members of the Proud Boys against seditious conspiracy charges would have you believe that their actions were simultaneously “disgraceful” and afflicted by “myths” about their bigotry, that they were mere “scapegoats” misled by Donald Trump, and that they regret their actions – even though they stand by the belief that the Capitol riot was little more than a “six hour delay of Congress”.

The first day of the trial on Thursday was plagued by sniping between the defence attorneys and Judge Timothy Kelly, human-caused technical issues that made one opening argument barely audible, and some polished defences for two of the most high-profile defendants on trial.

Zachary Rehl’s attorney Carmen Hernandez spent a good portion of her opening argument holding her microphone over her head, ensuring that few people outside the courtroom — which included most of the press in an adjacent viewing room at the courthouse — could not hear what she was saying.

The Independent’s Graig Graziosi has a view from inside the courtroom:

[13 January 2023 22:30 · Alex Woodward]

Yes, Trump’s ‘stand back and stand by’ comments will be allowed in court

Donald Trump invoked the group’s name during the first 2020 presidential debate on 29 September after debate moderator Chris Wallace repeatedly asked the president to denounce white supremacism.

Mr Trump asked for a name. Mr Biden suggested the Proud Boys.

“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by, but I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem,” Mr Trump replied. “This is a left-wing problem.”

Those comments will be used in the trial against five of the Proud Boys members facing charges of seditious conspiracy against the government for their roles in the Capitol attack.

After his comments, defendant Joe Biggs wrote on the social media platform Parler that “President Trump told the Proud Boys to stand by because someone needs to deal with antifa ... well sir! we’re ready!!”

The remarks turned into a kind of catchphrase that quickly spread across far-right online spaces. Proud Boys-related T-shirts and other items with the phrase appeared in online shopping sites shortly after the debate.

Jeremy Bertino, a North Carolina Proud Boy who is expected to be a key witness for the government during the trial, testified to the January 6 committee that Mr Trump’s comments were a “call to arms” that helped swell the groups’ ranks “exponentially” afterward.

“Standing by, sir,” Tarrio tweeted in response.

“You heard President Trump say ‘somebody has to do something about antifa.’ In that moment, battle lines were drawn,” said Assistant US Attorney Jason McCullough, who argued in his opening statements on Thursday that the debate moment signalled to members that “Trump was for the Proud Boys and Biden was for antifa.”

Here’s our report from the immediate aftermath of that viral moment:

[13 January 2023 23:30 · Alex Woodward]

From Day 2: Jurors get a close look at Proud Boy defendant using stolen police riot shield to break Capitol window

Detailing the events leading up to the mob’s breach of the Capitol, prosecutors on Friday showed the jury video footage of Dominic Pezzola using a riot shield he stole from a police officer to bash the building’s window, which allowed a stream of rioters to enter.

Here’s what that looked like:

Yesterday, his defense attorney Roger Roots played a video of his client smoking a cigar inside the Capitol and saying “this is f****** awesome” after entering the Capitol.

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”.