Former chairman of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, and four other top members of the far-right group were indicted on Monday for seditious conspiracy or inciting rebellion for their roles in the storming of the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.
The indictments are some of the most serious criminal charges to be brought in the Justice Department's sprawling investigation of the unprecedented attack. The sedition charges came in an amended indictment that was recently unsealed in Federal District Court in Washington.
Proud Boys Indictment
The suspects had already been charged in an earlier indictment filed in March with conspiring to obstruct the certification of the 2020 presidential election, which took place during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.
The new indictment marks the second time a far-right group has been charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the Capitol Hill riot. Stewart Rhodes, the current leader and founder of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, was arrested in January and charged along with 10 others with the same crime, as per the New York Times.
The charge of seditious conspiracy, which can sometimes be challenging to prove and carries particular legal weight as well as political overtones, requires prosecutors to prove that at least two people agreed to use force to overthrow government authority or delay the execution of a U.S. law. The charge would give a convicted suspect a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
However, it was not immediately clear what evidence led authorities to file the new charges, but the indictment underscored the central role played by the Proud Boys in the effort to forestall Former President Donald Trump's defeat and "oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power by force."
According to the Washington Post, while 38-year-old Tarrio was not in the District on the day of the Capitol Hill riot, he allegedly guided activities from nearby Baltimore as Proud Boys members engaged in the earliest and most aggressive attacks to confront and overwhelm police at several critical points on restricted Capitol grounds.
Inciting Rebellion
Another one of the defendants, Dominic Pezzola of Rochester, New York, was found to have broken through the first window of the building at around 2:13 p.m. with a stolen police riot shield, said authorities.
On Monday morning, a 10-count superseding indictment returned and charged Tarrio, Pezzola, and three other existing defendants, Ethan Nordean of Washington state, Joe Biggs of Florida, and Zachary Rehl of Pennsylvania. The suspects are believed to have eventually mustered and coordinated the movements of as many as 300 people around the Capitol on the day of the insurrection.
Tarrio and his co-defendants have previously pleaded not guilty to an earlier slate of charges against them. Prosecutors revealed the former Proud Boys leader's text messages from Jan. 6, 2021, where he appeared to have compared the attack on the U.S. Capitol to "The Winter Palace."
It was the home of the Russian emperor, which was stormed during the Russian Revolution in 1917. In the text messages, Tarrio appeared to comment on Congress being evacuated from the chambers, unable to certify the Electoral College vote, CNN reported.
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