Enrique Tarrio, the previous nationwide chairman of the Proud Boys, was arrested by U.S. Capitol Police on Friday following a press convention with different Proud Boys members and Oath Keepers’ founder Stewart Rhodes.
A spokesperson for USCP mentioned Tarrio was arrested for easy assault, after a counter protester put a cellphone near his face and he struck her telephone and arm in response.
The counter protester mentioned she wished to file fees, so Tarrio was arrested. The incident befell between the U.S. Capitol and Washington’s Union Station.
“This is absolutely insane,” Proud Boy Joe Biggs instructed The Hill in a textual content, claiming native police let “agitators” into their path. “Tarrio did nothing wrong. This is a set-up.”
Shortly earlier than his arrest, Tarrio gathered with different Proud Boys member and Rhodes to announce their intent to file lawsuits over their prosecutions tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol assault.
They introduced the authorized actions outdoors the Capitol, which members of each teams stormed 4 years in the past as Congress licensed the election win of President Trump’s Democratic opponent within the 2020 presidential race, former President Biden.
“I’m not talking about violent retribution,” Tarrio mentioned, flanked by the Proud Boys and supporters of Jan. 6 defendants. “I’m talking about something much more powerful: accountability and the rule of law.”
Tarrio mentioned that he and 4 different Proud Boys tried alongside him for sedition would sue the Justice Division for “about $150 million” inside the subsequent few weeks over “their murders, their lies and the countless struggling they’ve put us by means of.” The Proud Boy declined to element particular claims.
Joe Biggs, one of many different Proud Boys, instructed The Hill they deliberate to file swimsuit within the Southern District of Florida.
Rhodes, founding father of the right-wing militia group Oath Keepers, instructed The Hill he additionally deliberate to file swimsuit however couldn’t element any specifics.
Each Tarrio and Rhodes had been convicted of seditious conspiracy, a uncommon Civil Conflict-era cost, for plotting to forcibly halt the peaceable switch of energy from Trump to Biden.
Tarrio was not in Washington on Jan. 6, after being barred from the town following an unrelated arrest, however prosecutors mentioned he organized different Proud Boys to descend on the Capitol that day.
Prosecutors mentioned Rhodes, who was on the Capitol however didn’t enter the constructing nor assault legislation enforcement, acted “like a general overlooking a battlefield while his troops stormed inside.”
Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in jail, and Tarrio acquired a jail time period of 22 years — the longest sentence handed down in reference to the riot.
However these sentences had been wiped away with the stroke of Trump’s pen on his first day again within the White Home. Tarrio was granted a full pardon and Rhodes’s sentence was commuted to time served.
The clemency marked a pointy rebuke of the Justice Division’s sweeping Jan. 6 probe. Its sedition convictions of the extremist group leaders had been the crown jewels of a prosecution hailed as one of many “largest, most complex, and most resource-intensive investigations” within the company’s historical past.
Trump vowed on the marketing campaign path to alleviate Jan. 6 defendants, whom he described as “political prisoners,” however the scope of the president’s clemency motion — which granted full pardons for practically all rioters, together with those that attacked legislation enforcement — got here as a shock to some.
Prosecutors mentioned the Oath Keepers plotted for weeks forward of the Capitol assault, establishing an armed “quick reaction force” — a cache of weapons saved throughout the Potomac River — in case their plan went south. That day, a number of members ascended the Capitol steps in what prosecutors described as a military-style “stack” formation earlier than breaching the constructing.
The Proud Boys noticed themselves because the political proper’s “foot soldiers,” prosecutors mentioned, ready to go to conflict to maintain Trump in energy.
The 4 Proud Boys tried alongside Tarrio — Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola — additionally attended the press convention.
Nordean, Biggs and Rehl had been convicted of sedition. Pezzola, who used a stolen police riot protect to smash open a Capitol window, letting within the first members of the mob, was acquitted of sedition however convicted of different severe felonies. Trump commuted their sentences to time served.
Ivan Raiklin, a Trump supporter who has deemed himself “Secretary of Retribution,” was current for the announcement, as properly.
Since his return to energy, Trump’s personal retribution in opposition to the justice system has been swift.
Roughly two dozen prosecutors who labored on the greater than 1,500 Jan. 6 instances had been fired, and Trump’s Justice Division requested FBI management to show over a listing of brokers who labored Jan. 6 instances, placing in danger some 2,400 brokers who participated in the huge prosecutorial enterprise. That directive has been challenged in courtroom.
Prosecutors and brokers who beforehand labored on Trump’s two federal felony instances had been additionally terminated.
Up to date 3:37 p.m. ET
