The messages show Proud Boys celebrating when Trump, a Republican, told the group to “stand back and stand by” during his first debate with Biden, a Democrat. The foundation of the government’s case, which started with jury selection in January, is a trove of messages that Proud Boys leaders and members privately exchanged in encrypted chats - and publicly posted on social media - before, during and after the Jan. But this is the first major trial involving leaders of the far-right Proud Boys, a neofacist group of self-described “Western chauvinists” that remains a force in mainstream Republican circles. The Justice Department has already secured seditious conspiracy convictions against the founder and members of another far-right extremist group, the Oath Keepers. Mulroe said a conspiracy can be an unspoken and implicit “mutual understanding, reached with a wink and a nod.” The Proud Boys also face other serious charges. Seditious conspiracy, a Civil War-era charge that is rare and can be difficult to prove, carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison. ![]() “Does that prove some conspiracy by the men here?” Smith asked jurors. Nicholas Smith, attorney for former Proud Boys chapter leader Ethan Nordean, said prosecutors built their case on “misdirection and innuendo.” Smith accused prosecutors of repeatedly playing the clip of Trump from the debate to try to manipulate jurors. Tarrio wasn’t in Washington, D.C., that day but is accused of orchestrating an attack from afar.ĭefense attorneys say there’s is no evidence of a conspiracy or a plan for Proud Boys to attack the Capitol. Tarrio is one of the top targets of the Justice Department’s investigation of the riot that erupted at the Capitol on Jan. Prosecutors have repeatedly shown jurors a video clip of Trump telling the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during his first presidential debate with Joe Biden. 6, 2021, to the rhetoric and actions of the former president. The prosecution’s words underscore how the Justice Department has worked throughout the trial to link the violence on Jan. “These defendants saw themselves as Donald Trump’s army, fighting to keep their preferred leader in power no matter what the law or the courts had to say about it.” The Proud Boys were “lined up behind Donald Trump and willing to commit violence on his behalf,” prosecutor Conor Mulroe told jurors. Capitol insurrection.Īfter more than three months of testimony, jurors began hearing attorneys’ closing arguments in the seditious conspiracy case accusing Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants of plotting to forcibly stop the transfer of power from Trump to President Joe Biden. ![]() Ready for “all-out war,” leaders of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group viewed themselves as foot soldiers fighting for Donald Trump as the former president clung to power after the 2020 election, a prosecutor said Monday at the close of a historic trial over the U.S.
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