Five members of the Proud Boys have been indicted for seditious conspiracy related to their storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
An amended indictment unsealed in Federal District Court in Washington shows that Enrique Tarrio, who formerly served as the chairman of the Proud Boys, Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola, were indicted for seditious conspiracy.
All of the men were members of the extremist group and had traveled to DC from across the country for the Jan. 6 protest — an event that evolved into a riot and resulted in the storming of the United States Capitol.
Tarrio was not in the nation’s capitol when the Capitol Riot occurred, the filing notes: he had left the city following an order from a local judge after he was charged with the December burning of a Black Lives Matter banner.
Though Tarrio was not accused with “physically taking part in the breach of the Capitol,” the filing said, he still “led the advance planning and remained in contact with other members of the Proud Boys during” the riot, ordered the group to go “incognito” rather than wearing their traditional shirts, and created a “command and control structure” in a Telegram group chat.
Tarrio’s lawyers have argued that there is no evidence that he and the Proud Boys were conspiring ahead of time to storm the Capitol and that their group chat and protective gear was intended to guard themselves from the leftist activists that they encountered at previous DC events, according to the New York Times.
The Times notes that the Proud Boys had already been charged with conspiring to obstruct the certification of the 2020 presidential election in an indictment filed in March, and that the charge of seditious conspiracy is the most serious crime that the Justice Department has charged those involved in the Capitol Riot thus far.
The publication notes that charges of seditious conspiracy require that prosecutors prove force was used to interfere with the execution of federal law or to overthrow the government.
The House committee investigating Jan. 6 plans to feature the Proud Boys during their public hearing Thursday night, according to the Times — the committee will show live testimony from documentary film maker Nick Quested who had embedded with the Proud Boys during the riot, as well as testimony from Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who was injured during the Capitol Riot in an attack that the Times suggested was caused by the Proud Boys.
Lawmakers on the House’s Jan. 6 committee have hired the former president of ABC News, James Goldston, to promote its findings as a “blockbuster investigative special,” Axios reported Monday morning. Those results will be aired during primetime on Thursday evening.
Thursday’s hearing will reportedly include both pre-produced videos and live witnesses, according to Axios, as well as the unveiling of never-before-seen official White House photographs of the breach and surveillance footage.
“It is extremely broad. It’s extremely well organized. It’s really chilling,” Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican, recently told CBS “Sunday Morning,” describing the riot as an “extremely well-organized” conspiracy.
“There will be, I think, substantial evidence that really demonstrates the coordination and the planning and the effort, despite the fact that they understood that Donald Trump lost the election and even once the insurrection began and the violence began, there were ongoing efforts to persuade the former President to stop the violence and call on folks to go home, and he refused to do it,” Democratic Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island told CNN on Saturday.