A judge on Monday ordered two members of the right-wing men’s group Proud Boys jailed without any conditions of release while they await trial for their alleged role in the breach of the Capitol in January.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, determined Joseph Biggs and Ethan Nordean were too big a threat to be free before they have their day in court, highlighting “new evidence” from Justice Department prosecutors and noting that it did not matter that they weren’t armed on Jan. 6 and did not assault anyone. The Chicago Sun-Times reported:
Joseph Biggs and Ethan Nordean had been free since their March 10 indictment, but U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly concluded that the two men are dangerous and no conditions for their release could be adequate. The judge said Biggs and Nordean “facilitated political violence” even if they weren’t armed and didn’t assault anybody at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Kelly overruled another federal judge in Washington, D.C., who had ordered pretrial home confinement for Nordean. Biggs was freed after his initial Jan. 20 arrest in his home state of Florida. Justice Department prosecutors initially didn’t seek to keep Biggs jailed but last month asked for his pretrial release to be revoked, saying new evidence shows he poses a “grave danger” to the community.
Kelly determined that the “new evidence presented to prosecutors showed that the two men organized members of their group who participated in the Capitol attack,” according to The Hill.
Biggs and Nordean were indicted last month with “conspiring to impede Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported. “Other charges in the indictment include obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder and disorderly conduct.”
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell during a hearing in March admonished prosecutors for “backtracking on their claims that Nordean had instructed Proud Boys members to split up into smaller groups and directed a ‘strategic plan’ to breach the Capitol,” the report noted. Judge Howell, however, concluded that Nordean was “extensively involved” in “pre-planning” the Jan 6. breach of the Capitol.
The group the men are a part of, Proud Boys, “were clearly prepared for a violent confrontation,” the judge added.
A Proud Boys leader from North Carolina who was charged in connection with the Capitol riot, Charles Donohoe, was ordered by Judge Michael Harvey on Thursday to remain jailed until his trial for the safety of the community, POLITICO reported.
Judge Harvey determined Donohoe played a central role in the breach and celebrated afterward, the report said.
“Here, the danger posed by his release is that he will continue in the future, with his co-conspirators, both indicted and unindicted, to engage in acts of political violence or to aid and abet those who do,” the judge said.
Donohoe and other Proud Boys leaders “spoke of political violence, of the spirit of 1776, of revolution, of war,” Harvey reportedly said. “There’s no evidence in the record that the defendant or co-conspirators saw Jan. 6 or even the transfer of power to the Biden administration … as the end of that struggle.”
Biggs and Nordean’s attorneys unsuccessfully requested the suspension of Judge Kelly’s Monday ruling pending a possible appeal.