Enrique Tario, the former chairman of the Proud Boys, and four other members of the far-right group were charged Monday in a rebel plot for their roles in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 last year, some of the most serious criminal charges to be brought under of the extensive investigation into the attack by the Ministry of Justice.
The charges of rebellion come in an amended indictment that was printed in the Federal District Court in Washington. The men have already been charged in an earlier indictment filed in March in a conspiracy to obstruct the certification of the 2020 presidential election, which took place during a joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021.
The new charge marks the second time a far-right group has been accused of plotting a rebellion in connection with the January 6 attack. In January, Stuart Rhodes, leader and founder of the far-right militia Oath Keepers, was arrested and charged with 10 other crimes.
The accusation of rebel conspiracy – which can be difficult to prove and has particular legal weight as well as political overtones – requires prosecutors to show that at least two people have agreed to use force to overthrow government or delay law enforcement. USA. A maximum sentence of 20 years in prison is envisaged.
It was not immediately clear what evidence led to the new allegations, but the indictment underscores the central role played by the Proud Boys in their efforts to prevent the defeat of President Donald J. Trump and “oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power by force” by storming the Capitol.
The group and its actions around the Capitol will be central to a narrative drawn up by a House of Representatives committee investigating the attack and Mr Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results, two people familiar with the commission’s plans said Monday.
When the committee held the first of a series of public hearings on Thursday night, the two said they intended to present live testimony from Nick Questid, a British documentary filmmaker who filmed the group with his permission during the riot, and Caroline Edwards. a Capitol police officer who was wounded, according to a videotape of the incident, by a rebel who had spoken to one of the Proud Boys accused of rebellion a few minutes earlier.
Mr Custed spent much of the post-election period filming members of the Proud Boys, including Mr Tario, and the commission said he may have witnessed their talks scheduled for 6 January. Mr Custed accompanied the Proud Boys to pro-Trump rallies in Washington in November and December 2020 and was on site with members of the group on January 6, when several played a crucial role in violating the Capitol.
Mr Questid was also present with a camera crew the day before the attack, when Mr Tario met in an underground garage near the Capitol with a small group of pro-Trump activists, including Mr Rhodes of the Guardians of the Oath. Late in the day on January 6, Mr. Custed and his crew were with Mr. Tario in Baltimore, filming him as he responded to real-time news of the riot.
Ms. Edwards, a respected Capitol police officer, is believed to be the first officer injured in the attack and suffered a concussion during the attack.
Other employees around the building recall hearing Officer Edwards call for help on the radio – one of the first signs of the day that mob violence was beginning to take over the police. Months after the attack, Officer Edwards continued to have seizures believed to be related to her injuries.
Ms. Edwards did not respond to a request for comment on Monday. In an email to The New York Times in December, she said, “Capitol police officers had an extremely difficult year, but I saw more resilience in the department than I ever thought possible.”
The updated indictment proposed several new facts, largely reflecting previous accounts contained in earlier indictment documents. Among them was how Joseph Biggs, one of the defendants accused of rebellion, had a brief exchange before the violence erupted with a man in the crowd, who later marched alone to the barricade in front of the Capitol and confronted police.
This man, Ryan Samsel, has been accused of attacking barricade officers in what is believed to be the turning point of the riot, with a videotape showing him attacking Officer Edwards. Mr Biggs denied inciting Mr Samsel.
In the weeks following Mr Tario’s arrest and the last indictment against him and his co-defendants – Mr Biggs, Ethan Nordian, Zachary Rell and Dominic Petzola – there were several events that could give investigators a deeper understanding of the Proud Boys on January 6 and their movements on the ground that day.
Another Proud Boy lieutenant, initially charged in the same case with the men, Charles Donohaw, pleaded guilty in April and is cooperating in the group’s government investigation.
At the time of Mr Tario’s arrest, federal investigators also searched the homes – and confiscated the phones – of three other high-ranking Proud Boys identified as innocent conspirators in the case. But none of the men – Jeremy Bertino, Aaron Walkind and John C. Stewart – have been charged.
When Mr Rhodes, the leader of the Guardians of the Oath, and 10 of his subordinates were charged in January with a rebel conspiracy, prosecutors said they were involved in a conspiracy to forcibly halt the legal transition to presidential power by sending people to the Capitol in January. . 6 and by creating a heavily armed “rapid reaction force” outside Washington that was ready to rush to the aid of its compatriots in the building.
The rebel conspiracy charge requires prosecutors to prove that force was used either to overthrow the government or to interfere with federal law.
However, unlike Mr Rhodes, Mr Tario was not in Washington on 6 January. Two days earlier, he had been ordered to leave town by a local judge after he was accused of burning a Black Lives Matter banner in a church during a holiday of violence following a various rally for Trump in December.
Federal prosecutors said that while Mr Tario was not charged with “physical involvement in the Capitol breach”, he nevertheless “led the planning and liaison with other members of the Proud Boys” during the storming of a building.
Prosecutors say, for example, Mr Tario ordered members of the group to leave their traditional black and yellow polo shirts before the attack and remain “incognito” when they arrived in Washington on January 6. Tario also helped set up a “command and control structure” in a private group chat on the Telegram, calling itself the Ministry of Defense, prosecutors said.
As the Capitol riots unfolded, Mr. Tario seems to be credited with the role of the Proud Boys in what is happening. “We did that,” he wrote at one point in a Telegram group chat.
Mr Tario’s lawyers and other men have repeatedly said there was no evidence that they had conspired in advance to storm the Capitol. By setting up group chat and taking other measures, such as acquiring protective equipment, the Proud Boys were simply trying to protect themselves from left-wing activists who were arguing over earlier events in Washington, lawyers said.
However, prosecutors said that a week before the Capitol attack, one of Mr Tario’s friends had given him a document entitled “Return of 1776” containing a detailed plan for monitoring and storming government buildings near the Capitol at 6 January – though not the Capitol itself. People familiar with the document said that the friend sent texts to Mr. Tario, comparing the plans in the document with the storming of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, which helped start the Russian Revolution in 1917.
In the latest indictment, prosecutors cite something that appears to be a newly discovered text message exchange on the evening of January 6, after the attack on the Capitol ended, between Mr Tario and Mr Bertino. Mr Bertino, a prominent member of the North Carolina Proud Boy, was stabbed at an earlier rally for Trump in December and, like Mr Tario, was not in Washington on 6 January.
At one point, Mr. Bertino made a reference to “1776,” which led Mr. Tario to reply minutes later, “The Winter Palace.”
“Dude,” Mr. Bertino wrote then, “have we just influenced history?”
Mr Tario replied: “Let’s first see how this develops.”
Mr. Bertino replied: “They MUST be certified today! Or it’s invalid. “
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