Proud Boys frontman Enrique Tarrio charged in January 6 Conspiracy

Enrique Tarrio, former Proud Boys National President, stands outside the Hyatt County Sheriff, where the Conservative Party Political Action Conference is being held on February 27, 2021 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.)

The 38-year-old leader of the so-called “Western Chauvinist” Proud Boys has been arrested and charged with plotting to organize the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Henry “Enrique” Tarrio was arrested in Miami on Tuesday, according to a Press Release from the Department of Justice.

This is the second arrest of a senior leader of an extremist group in the federal government’s prosecution of Donald Trump Advocates of police brutality at the US Capitol in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s win the 2020 presidential election.

Stewart Rhodesfounder of the radical anti-government militia Oath Keepers, was arrested in January in an ambitious conspiracy case, the most serious of which occurred on January 6.

According to the indictment published Monday, Tarrio launched a chapter of Proud Boys aimed specifically at political protests.

“Starting late December 2020, TARRIO and several other Proud Boys members created a new chapter for Proud Boys that includes members from around the country. The new chapter is called the Department of Defense or MOSD (“MOSD”). TARRIO has described MOSD as a ‘national rally planning’ chapter that will consist only of ‘manually selected members. ”

Prosecutors said MOSD “started preparations for January 6, 2021” almost immediately after it was established.

Although Tarrio was not charged with trespassing the building, prosecutors say he “led the advance planning and remained in contact with other members of the Proud Boys during their time in the Capitol.”

Tarrio was arrested on January 4 and charged with property damage for stealing and burning a Black Lives Matter banner at Asbury United Methodist Church, a historic black church in D.C. He. pleaded guilty in July.

According to prosecutors, he was ordered to leave Washington at the time, but he did not. Instead, he is said to have met Rhodes in a garage on January 5, the night before the Capitol break-in.

“TARRIO failed to comply with an order to leave the District of Columbia immediately,” the indictment reads. “After being turned down by the Phoenix Park Hotel, TARRIO went to a nearby underground parking garage, where he met Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, founder and leader of the Oath-Keepers, and others assigned to him. known and unknown to the grand jury, for about 30 minutes. During this meeting, one participant consulted the Capitol. ”

Tarrio left DC after that meeting, prosecutors said, but “designated MOSD leaders, and other individuals whose identities were known to the grand jury, carried out the goals of MOSD leadership.” .”

Prosecutors said that Tarrio then “claimed credit for what happened” at the Capitol on social media and in an encrypted chat both during and after the attack.

Tarrio now faces a total of seven charges: conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructing an official proceeding, obstructing law enforcement during a civil disorder, destroying property government and assaulted, resisted, or obstructed certain officers.

Federal obstruction charges carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

He is named in a second alternative indictment in the case Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, Charles Donohoeand Dominic Pezzola. All defendants pleaded not guilty.

The federal obstruction charge can present challenges for federal prosecutors. While the 10 judges on DC denied moves to dismiss that charge from many defendants on January 6, one judge just issued such a motion on Monday.

[Images via Joe Raedle/Getty Images.]

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