Prosecutor: Proud Boys saw themselves as ‘Trump’s army’

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ready for “total war,” the leaders of the far-right extremist group the Proud Boys saw themselves as foot soldiers fighting for donald trump as the former president clung to power after the 2020 election, a prosecutor said Monday at the end of a landmark trial for the US Capitol insurrection.

Jurors began hearing closing arguments from attorneys for the case against the former proud boys national president henry tarrio and four lieutenants. They are charged with seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors say was a plot to prevent Congress from certifying the president. Joe BidenTrump’s election victory on January 6, 2021, when the pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol.

The Proud Boys were “ranked behind Donald Trump and willing to commit violence in his name,” prosecutor Conor Mulroe told the jury, which heard more than three months of testimony. “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 said about it.”

The prosecution’s words underscore how the Justice Department has worked throughout the trial to link the violence on January 6 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 Joe Biden.

Defense attorneys have said there is no evidence of a conspiracy or plan for the Proud Boys to attack the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Mulroe said a conspiracy can be a tacit and implied “mutual understanding,” reached with a wink and a nod. A “plan,” he added, is not the right word to describe what this case is about.

Tarrio is one of the main targets of the Justice Department’s investigation into the riot that broke out at the Capitol. Tarrio was not in Washington, DC that day, but he is accused of orchestrating an attack from afar.

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” that remains a force in mainstream Republican circles.

seditious conspiracy, a Civil War-era charge that is rare and can be difficult to prove, carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison. The Proud Boys also face other serious charges.

Jurors have heard 50 days of testimony from more than three dozen witnesses since the trial began in January. Two of the five defendants testified, but Tarrio was not one of them.

The rationale for the government’s case is a treasure of messages that Proud Boys leaders and members exchanged privately in encrypted chats, and posted publicly on social media, before, during, and after the January 6 attack.

The messages show the Proud Boys celebrating when Trump, a Republican, told the group that “stand back and wait” during his first debate with Biden, a Democrat. After the 2020 election, they discussed plans to travel to Washington to Trump’s “Stop the Steal” Rally January 6th. And they raged online for weeks about unsubstantiated claims of a stolen election and what would happen when Biden took office.

“If Biden steals this election, (the Proud Boys) will be political prisoners,” Tarrio posted on November 16, 2020. “We will not go quietly…I promise.”

Jurors also viewed the series of light-hearted messages that members of the Proud Boys posted during the riots on January 6. A group of Proud Boys marched on the Capitol that day. Some entered the building after the crowd of Trump supporters Police lines overwhelmed.

“Make no mistake,” Tarrio wrote in a message. “We did this.”

Tarrio, a Miami resident, is on trial with Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola. Nordean, of Auburn, Washington, was president of the Proud Boys chapter. Biggs, from Ormond Beach, Florida, described himself as an organizer for the Proud Boys. Rehl was president of a Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia. Pezzola was a member of the Proud Boys from Rochester, New York.

Tarrio was arrested in Washington two days before the January 6 riots on charges that he burned down a church’s Black Lives Matter banner during a previous march in the city. Tarrio complied with a judge’s order to leave the country’s capital after his arrest.

Defense attorneys called several current and former Proud Boys to the stand, trying to portray the group as a drinking club that only committed violence in self-defense against anti-fascist activists.

Rehl, the first defendant to testify, said the group had “without purpose” that day. Pezzola testified that he was “caught up in madness” and performed only on January 6 when he used a riot shield stolen from a police officer to smash a Capitol window.

Prosecutors have argued that Tarrio and the others mobilized a loyal group of foot soldiers— or “tools” — supply the necessary force to carry out his plot. Mulroe said Proud Boys leaders wanted to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s victory “by any means necessary, including force.”

“You want to call this a drinking club? Do you want to call a men’s fraternal organization? Ladies and gentlemen, let’s call this what it is…a violent gang that banded together to use force against their enemies,” the prosecutor said.

Key witnesses for prosecutors included two former Proud Boys members who have pleaded guilty to riot-related charges and are cooperating with the government in hopes of getting lighter sentences.

The first, matthew green, testified that members of the group expected a “civil war” as they grew increasingly angry over the election results. The second, jeremy bertinotestified that he saw the Proud Boys as leaders of the conservative movement and as “the spearhead” after the November 2020 election.

The Proud Boys’ defense mirrored arguments put forward by lawyers for the Oath Keepers members, who were separately charged with seditious conspiracy. They also said there was no evidence of a plan for members of the group to attack the Capitol.

Several Oath Keepers, including the founder of the anti-government group, Stewart Rhodes, also appeared as witnesses at their trials, with mixed results. Over the course of two Oath Keepers trials, prosecutors obtained seditious conspiracy convictions against Rhodes and five other members, while three defendants were acquitted of the charge. Those three, however, were convicted of obstructing Congressional certification of Biden’s election victory.

Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the US Capitol insurrection on https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege.