The former top leader and other members of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group have been charged with seditious conspiracy, which federal prosecutors say is preventing Congress from authenticating President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, officials said Monday. To stop was a coordinated attack on the US Capitol, officials said on Monday. ,
Henry “Enrique” Tario, former Proud Boys president, and four others linked to the group have been charged in the latest indictment against him. All five were earlier charged with different conspiracies.
The group’s top leader, Tario, was not in Washington, DC when a riot broke out on January 6, 2021. Police arrested Tario in Washington two days before the riot and charged him with dismantling a Black Lives Matter banner in a historic black. Church during a protest in December 2020. Tario was released from prison on January 14 after serving a five-month sentence in that case.
The new riot-related indictments against members of the Proud Boys are among the most serious charges ever filed, but they are not the first of their kind.
Eleven members or allies of the anti-government oath guard militia groupIncluding its founder and leader, Stewart Rhodes, were indicted in January on seditious conspiracy charges in the Capitol attack.
More than three dozen people charged in the Capitol siege have been identified by federal officials as Proud Boys leaders, members or associates.
A New York man pleaded guilty to attacking the US Capitol with fellow Proud Boys members in December. Matthew Green was the first Proud Boys member to publicly plead guilty to conspiring with other members to prevent Congress from authenticating the Electoral College vote. Green agreed to cooperate with the authorities.
On the morning of January 6, members of the Proud Boys met at the Washington Monument and marched to the Capitol before then-President Donald Trump spoke to thousands of supporters near the White House.
An indictment says that just before Congress convened a joint session to certify election results, a group of Proud Boys chased a crowd of people breaking barriers at the pedestrian entrance to the Capitol grounds. Several proud boys also entered the Capitol building after the mob forced them to break windows and open the doors.
Prosecutors have said the Proud Boys arranged for the members to communicate using specific frequencies on Baofeng Radio. Chinese-made instruments can be programmed for use on hundreds of frequencies, making it difficult for outsiders to hear.
In December, a federal judge refused to dismiss an earlier indictment that accused four alleged leaders of the far-right Proud Boys of conspiracy. US District Judge Timothy Kelly rejected defense attorneys’ arguments that four men – Ethan Nordion, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Charles Donohoe – were charged with conduct that is protected by the First Amendment to free speech.
Nordian from Auburn, Washington, was president of the Proud Boys chapter and a member of the group’s national “Council of Elders”. Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, is a self-described Proud Boys organizer. Rehl was the president of the Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia. According to the indictment, Donohoe of Kernersville, North Carolina, also served as the president of his local chapter.
Members of the Proud Boys describe the group as a politically incorrect men’s club for “Western fundamentalists”. Its members have frequently clashed with anti-fascist activists at rallies and protests. Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, who founded the Proud Boys in 2016, sued the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling it as a hate group.
