On Thursday, four members of the far-right group, the Proud Boys, were found guilty of seditious conspiracy for their roles in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Enrique Tarrio, the former national chairman of the neofascist organization, was among those convicted. Three of Tarrio’s lieutenants, Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, and Zachary Rehl, were also found guilty of seditious conspiracy, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Dominic Pezzola, another Proud Boy, was found not guilty.
The five Proud Boy defendants were also convicted of several lesser charges, including obstruction of the proceedings of Congress, impeding law enforcement, and destruction of government property. Pezzola was additionally found guilty of robbery of US property.
The success of federal prosecutors in obtaining convictions for sedition among the January 6 rioters could raise the stakes for former President Donald Trump and his aides in the probe by a special counsel into whether they plotted or fomented the Capitol attack.
More than 1,000 people have been arrested in connection with the storming of Congress by Trump supporters, with more than 600 convicted. However, only about a dozen have faced the rarely-used charge of sedition.
Two leaders of another far-right group, the Oath Keepers, were convicted of seditious conspiracy last year, and several other members pleaded guilty without going to trial. Tarrio’s indictment stated that he met with Oath Keeper founder Stewart Rhodes on January 5 in an underground parking garage in Washington and was in contact with members of the Proud Boys who breached the Capitol.
The assault on Congress left at least five people dead and 140 police officers injured and followed a fiery speech by Trump to thousands of his supporters near the White House. Trump was impeached for a historic second time by the House of Representatives after the Capitol riot but was acquitted by the Senate. A House committee that investigated the Capitol riot recommended that the Justice Department pursue criminal charges against Trump.
Attorney General Merrick Garland named a special counsel to oversee the probe into the January 6 assault and the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election result. Trump is also facing possible indictment in Georgia for allegedly pressuring local officials to change the election results in the southern state. The special counsel is also looking into a cache of classified documents that the FBI seized in a raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence last year.
