Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio pleads not guilty to conspiracy related to Jan. 6 planning
Washington — Enrique Tarrio, the chief of the far-right group the Very pleased Boys, pleaded not responsible to multiple federal felony counts on Tuesday, which includes conspiracy to hinder Congress’ certification of the 2020 electoral votes stemming from his alleged participation in the Capitol attack of Jan. 6, 2021.
Tarrio was arrested in Miami very last month immediately after a grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted him and five other Happy Boys customers who experienced currently been billed with other crimes linked to Jan. 6. A Florida choose ordered Tarrio detained pending trial.
He appeared nearly at an arraignment in U.S. District Court in Washington to enter his not guilty plea on Tuesday.
The Justice Division claimed Tarrio was not at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but prosecutors allege he led the progress preparing of a portion of the assault and remained in speak to with some of the Proud Boys whilst they had been taking element in the assault.
The Proud Boys chief was arrested two days ahead of the assault on unrelated fees. He was introduced the future day and purchased to stay out of Washington. The new indictment alleged that he defied the buy and remained in the District for some time, directing the Very pleased Boys’ actions all through the Capitol rioting and bragging about it afterwards on social media and in encrypted messages.
Co-defendants and fellow Happy Boys Joseph Biggs, Charles Donohoe, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola pleaded not guilty final month to identical charges. Pezzola has also been billed with thieving an officer’s riot shield ahead of allegedly applying it to break a window all through the early stages of the Capitol breach.
Prosecutors said Tarrio and other Very pleased Boys allegedly proven what they referred to as a “Ministry of Self Defense,” with Tarrio at the leading of the electrical power framework.
“This group was to form the nucleus of leadership in a new chapter of the Very pleased Boys corporation, which Tarrio described as a ‘national rally planning’ chapter. The to start with occasion qualified by the group was the rally in D.C. on January 6,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment.
Using encrypted messaging courses, the group is accused of discussing their designs for the rally and past. “A single of Tarrio’s hand-picked MOSD associates posted a information that read through, ‘time to stack those bodies in front of Capitol Hill,'” the authorities alleged.
In accordance to the indictment, in December 2020, Tarrio and Proud Boys customers conspired to hinder and stop the counting of the Electoral Higher education vote on Jan. 6. An unnamed specific sent Tarrio a document entitled “1776 RETURNS,” which explained a plan to occupy a number of properties in Washington, D.C., which includes congressional chambers.
On January 5 — when he was below orders not to be in the District of Columbia — Tarrio achieved with Stewart Rhodes, the head of a different considerably-right group, the Oath Keepers, and some others in a D.C. parking garage. In accordance to a latest governing administration court docket submitting, a documentary movie crew was with the group inside of the garage and picked up audio of an unnamed particular person talking about the Capitol.
An person common with the footage explained to CBS Information it had been shot by a Goldcrest Movie Global movie crew, which was present at the January 5 conference among Rhodes, Tarrio, and some others. CBS News has also discovered that the Property committee investigating the Capitol assault is in possession of the footage in concern.
Tarrio allegedly informed an specific at the meeting that he experienced erased all of the messages on his mobile phone right before his arrest and manufactured it challenging for everyone to accessibility his cellphone data, courtroom information suggest.
The next working day, on January 6, about 100 associates of the Proud Boys collected at the Washington Monument at 6 a.m, the indictment stated. Many ended up alleged to have “directed, mobilized, and led customers of the crowd onto the Capitol grounds and into the Capitol, leading to dismantling of metallic barricades, destruction of home, and assaults on regulation enforcement,” the indictment claimed.
Tarrio posted on social media that working day, “Make no error…we did this.” At 2:41 p.m, he wrote “Very pleased of My Boys and my country,” in accordance to charging documents.
Prosecutors indicated in a former court docket submitting that their probe into the Very pleased Boys may be far from over. Following Tarrio’s arrest, the Justice Division wrote, investigators uncovered evidence that may well prompt them to “look for to cost quite a few more defendants and/or seek to insert new charges.”
The trial is established for late Could, but will possible be pushed again just after the federal government mentioned the parties needed a lot more time to put together. Some of the defendants have explained they oppose the all-but-selected hold off.
More than 30 customers or affiliate marketers of the Happy Boys have been billed as aspect of the Justice Department’s growing probe into the Capitol attack. Notably, Very pleased Boy Matthew Environmentally friendly pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy late previous 12 months and is now cooperating with investigators.
