After more than three months of testimony, jurors began hearing closing arguments from lawyers in the seditious conspiracy case that charges Proud Boys national president Enrique Tarrío and four of his subordinates with conspiring to arrest for force the transfer of power to President Biden.
The Proud Boys were “ranked behind Donald Trump and willing to commit violence in his name,” prosecutor Conor Mulroe told the jury. “These defendants saw themselves as Donald Trump’s army, fighting to keep his preferred leader in power no matter what the law or the courts had to say about it.”
The prosecution’s words underscore how the Justice Department has worked throughout the trial to link the violence of January 6, 2021 to the former president’s rhetoric and actions. Prosecutors have repeatedly shown jurors a video clip of Trump telling the Proud Boys to “stop and stay out” during his first presidential debate with Biden.
Tarrío is one of the main targets of the Justice Department’s investigation into the riot that broke out at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Tarrío was not in Washington, DC that day, but is accused of orchestrating an attack from afar. One of Tarrío’s lawyers is expected to address the jury Tuesday when the trial resumes for a second day of closing arguments. Defense attorneys maintain there is no evidence of a conspiracy or plan for the Proud Boys to attack the Capitol.
The leader of the Proud Boys, the Cuban-American Enrique Tarrío, accused of sedition
The Proud Boys also face other serious charges. Mulroe said a conspiracy can be a tacit and implied “mutual understanding,” reached with a wink and a nod. The Justice Department has already obtained seditious conspiracy convictions against the founder and members of another far-right extremist group, the Oath Keepers.
But this is the first major trial involving the leaders of the far-right Proud Boys, a neo-fascist group of self-described “Western chauvinists.”
The foundation of the government’s case, which began with jury selection in January, is a treasure trove of messages that Proud Boys leaders and members exchanged privately in encrypted chat rooms, and posted publicly on social media, before, during, and after. of the attack on January 6. The messages show the Proud Boys celebrating when Trump, a Republican, told the group to “step aside and stay out” during his first debate with Biden, a Democrat.
After the 2020 election, they echoed unsubstantiated claims of stolen elections and what would happen when Biden took office. “If Biden steals this election, (the Proud Boys) will be political prisoners,” Tarrío posted on November 16, 2020. “We will not go quietly…I promise.”
The seditious conspiracy charge carries a possible prison sentence of up to 20 years.
