Enrique Tario, the former chairman of the Proud Boys, and four other members of the far-right group were charged Monday with a rebellious plot to storm the Capitol in January 2021, the most serious allegations to be made in an extensive investigation into the attack. from the Ministry of Justice.
The charges of rebellion against Mr. Tario and his co-defendants – Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordian, Zachary Rell and Dominic Petzola – come in an amended indictment, which 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.
It was not immediately clear what evidence led to the new allegations against members of the Proud Boys, which were central to efforts to storm the Capitol and help prevent the defeat of President Donald J. Trump.
Another Proud Boy lieutenant, who was initially charged with the men, Charles Donohaw, pleaded guilty in April and is cooperating with the group’s government investigation. Around the time of Mr Tario’s arrest this spring, federal investigators searched the homes – and confiscated the phones – of three other high-ranking Proud Boys, identified as innocent conspirators in the case, but none were publicly charged.
The rebel conspiracy charge requires prosecutors to prove that force was used either to overthrow the government or to interfere with federal law.
The only other defendants in the Capitol riot investigation who have so far been charged with rebel conspiracy are Stuart Rhodes, the leader of the swearing-in militia, and 10 of his subordinates. Prosecutors say Mr Rhodes led a conspiracy to forcibly halt the legal transfer of presidential power by sending people to the Capitol on January 6 and creating a heavily armed “rapid reaction force” outside Washington that was ready to rush to the aid of his countrymen in the building.
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 violence following a various rally for Trump in December.
Federal prosecutors said that although Mr Tario was not accused of “physically participating in the Capitol breach”, he nevertheless “led the preliminary planning and remained in contact with other members of the Proud Boys” during the storming the 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” for the group in a private group chat on the Telegram, called 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 a self-defense group chat and taking other measures, such as acquiring protective equipment, the Proud Boys were simply trying to protect themselves from left-wing activists they had quarreled with earlier, earlier events in Washington, they said. lawyers.
The proud boys will also be introduced when the House of Representatives inquiry commission held its first public hearing on Thursday night. The commission intends to present live testimonies from Nick Custed, a documentary filmmaker who joined the group during the riot, and Caroline Edwards, a Capitol police officer who was injured in an attack earlier in the day. is said to have been caused by the Proud Boys.
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