Daily Archives: November 21, 2022

Washington A former leader of the far-right extremist group the Proud Boys pleaded guilty Thursday to seditious conspiracy for his role related to the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, becoming the first member of the organization to do so since the leader of the group and several of its members were indicted.

Jeremy Bertino, of Belmont, North Carolina, admittedin federal court to "knowingly combine, conspire, confederate and agree" with five members of the Proud Boys and its leader, Enrique Tarrio, "to oppose by force the authority of the government of the United States and to delay by force the execution of the laws governing the transfer of power, including the 12th Amendment."

As part of his plea deal with federal prosecutors, Bertino has agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department's ongoing investigation into the group. He also spoke with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault, and his testimony was featured in its June hearing. Bertino told committee investigators that membership in the Proud Boys "tripled" after former President Donald Trump told the group to "stand back and stand by" during a September 2020 presidential debate.

According to the filing, Bertino also "unlawfully and knowingly" received and had several firearms, including two pistols, two rifles, a shotgun and a Mossburg .22 AR-15-style firearm with a scope, "which had been possessed, shipped and transported in and affecting interstate and foreign commerce." The weapons were discovered in a court-authorized search of his residence in March, during which the FBI also found 3,000 rounds of ammunition, according to the Justice Department.

He pleaded guilty to one count of seditious conspiracy and one count of unlawfully possessing a firearm or ammunition due to a prior conviction, and admitted to conspiring to use force to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Trump to President Biden.

Bertino, 43, is the first Proud Boys member to plead guilty to seditious conspiracy, though he was not among the group's members charged by the Justice Department in June. Tarrio, along with codefendants Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola, are accused of conspiring to obstruct and stop the counting of state electoral votes when Congress convened for a joint session Jan.

The trial for the members is set to begin in mid-December.

Another leader of the group with close ties to Tarrio, Charles Donohoe, pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and assaulting officers earlier this year. He, too, is cooperating with investigators.

Members of another far-right group, the Oath Keepers, are currently on trial, facing numerous felonies including seditious conspiracy. A jury is currently hearing testimony in the case of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four codefendants, all of whom have pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Bertino joined the Proud Boys around 2018 and served as the vice president of a local chapter in South Carolina. According to court filings, he traveled to Washington, D.C., numerous times for rallies in 2020, and during one trip on Dec. 12, 2020, he was stabbed after an altercation involving other Proud Boys members.

Bertino was hospitalized and released. On Jan. 6, 2021, the day of the assault on the U.S. Capitol, he was still recovering from his injuries, according to the Justice Department, so he did not participate in the events of that day.

Federal prosecutors said that in December 2020, Bertino accepted an invitation from Tarrio to join a new chapter called the "Ministry of Self Defense," and participated in encrypted chats with members of the group's leadership in the weeks before the Jan. 6 attack. Members believed the 2020 presidential election was stolen, and they agreed that the goal of traveling to Washington on Jan. 6 was to stop the certification of electoral votes, the Justice Department said.

The so-called "Ministry of Self Defense" organization, with Tarrio at the top of the power structure, "was to form the nucleus of leadership in a new chapter of the Proud Boys organization," according to court documents filed earlier this year.

The Justice Department said that as early as Jan. 4, two days before the Capitol insurrection, Bertino received encrypted messages indicating leaders of the "Ministry of Self Defense" were discussing the possibility of storming the Capitol. On Jan. 6, he posted messages to the organization's leaders to offer assistance and encouragement, including urging those at the Capitol grounds to "form a spear."

Bertino also publicly posted to a social media account "DO NOT GO HOME. WE ARE ON THE CUSP OF SAVING THE CONSTITUTION" and, the evening of Jan. 6, Bertino messaged Tarrio, writing "You know we made this happen," and "1776 m*****f*****."

He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and up to 10 years in prison for the firearms charge.

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Jeremy Bertino, Proud Boys member from North Carolina, pleads guilty to ...

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WASHINGTON A former leader of the Proud Boys extremist group pleaded guilty Thursday to seditious conspiracy in connection with the group's efforts to halt the certification of the 2020 election.

Jeremy Bertino, 43, acknowledged his role in helping to plan the Proud Boys'participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol and also agreed to cooperate in the government's continuing investigation.

Five other members of the Proud Boys, including former national chairman Enrique Tarrio, also have been charged with sedition and are awaiting trial.A sixth member of the group, Charles Donohoe, 34, pleaded guilty earlier this year to a conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting andresisting officers.

In addition to the sedition charge, Bertino also pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of firearms related to a March search of his home where authorities recovered six guns, including an AR-15 rifle and more than 3,000 rounds of ammunition. Bertino had been barred from possessing firearms andammunition due to a previous conviction.

In the weeks prior to the Jan. 6 assault, according to court documents,Bertino participated in encrypted chats and other communications with members of the group's so-called "Ministry of Self-Defense," in which leaders asserted that the "presidential election had been stolen."

At the time, the members discussed traveling to Washington on a mission to "stop the certification of the Electoral College Vote, and that the MOSD leaders were willing to do whatever it would take, including using force against police and others, to achieve that objective."

Monitoring activities outside of Washington, while recovering from a stabbing, Bertino allegedly encouraged his Proud Boy colleagues on Jan. 6 to "form a spear" and continue the fight.

DO NOT GO HOME. WE ARE ON THE CUSP OF SAVING THE CONSTITUTION," Bertino wrote to his colleagues, later celebrating the group's effort with Tarrio.

You know we made this happen," he wrote.

According to court documents, Bertino joined the Proud Boys in 2018 and for a time served as the vice president of the Proud Boys chapter in South Carolina.

In a videotaped deposition before the House committee investigating the Capitol assault, Bertino told lawmakers that membership in the Proud Boys group had "tripled," after then-President Donald Trump urged members to"stand back and stand by" during a 2020 presidential debate.

Bertino faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and up to 10 years in prison for the firearms charge.

The guilty pleacomes as five members of the para-military group Oath Keepers, including leader Stewart Rhodes, stand trial on sedition charges in a Washington, D.C., federal court.

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Ex Proud Boys leader pleads guilty to seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6

Jeremy Bertino, a Proud Boys leader from North Carolina, pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy and gun charges on Thursday, becoming the first member of the far-right group to admit to seditious conspiracy the toughest charge prosecutors have filed in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot investigation and the first Proud Boys leader to plead guilty to any charges. He agreed to cooperate with the government in its seditious conspiracy case against five other Proud Boys leaders, set for trial in December.

Bertino, 43, formally entered his guilty plea at a court hearing in Washington, D.C., down the hall from where Stewart Rhodes and other leaders of the Oath Keepers militia are being tried for seditious conspiracy for their roles in the Jan. 6 insurgency. U.S. District Judge Tim Kelly accepted Bertino's guilty plea.

The charges he admitted to carry maximum jail terms of 30 years, but "in a sign of the sensitivity and potential importance of Bertino's testimony, prosecutors agreed that in exchange for 'substantial cooperation,' they could seek leniency at sentencing and enter Bertino into a Justice Department witness protection program," The Washington Post reports. They said they would recommend a sentence in the four- to five-year range.

The five Proud Boys members facing trial for seditious conspiracy conspiring to forcibly overthrow the government, impede its laws, or seize its property are former national chairman Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, Joe Biggs, Zachary Rehl, Ethan Nordean, and Dominic Pezzola.

Neither Tarrio nor Bertino were at the Capitol on Jan. 6 Tarrio had been arrested on other charges two days earlier and barred from the capital, and Bertino was recovering from a stab wound he got at a bar fight in D.C. in December. Encrypted text messages showed both men were involved in planning an attack, as Bertino's plea deal says, to "stop the certification of the Electoral College vote" on Jan. 6, even if it involved "using force against police and others."

Four people affiliated with the Oath Keepers have also pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, and two Proud Boys have pleaded guilty to lesser Jan. 6 conspiracy charges. In all, the Justice Department says, more than 870 people have been arrested for Jan. 6related crimes, and "the investigation remains ongoing."

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Tarrio is set to go on trial in December, along with Proud Boys Ethan Nordean, Joe Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola, who was the first member of the Jan. 6 mob to breach the Capitol when he shattered a Senate-wing window with a police riot shield.

Prosecutors say Tarrio and his allies developed a plan to besiege the Capitol, relying on and in fact organizing and spurring on members of the mob to help break through police lines and get inside the Capitol. It was part of an effort that prosecutors say was intended to disrupt the peaceful transfer of presidential power.

Kelly accepted Bertinos plea after asking Bertino a series of standard questions to ensure, under oath, that Bertino entered it voluntarily and without being threatened or coerced.

The seditious conspiracy charges against the Proud Boys leaders are the gravest leveled by the Justice Department against any of the more than 850 defendants charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Bertino was briefly featured during video testimony aired by the Jan. 6 select committee during its first public hearing in June. He described a surge in Proud Boys membership after then-President Donald Trump urged the group to stand back and stand by during a debate against Joe Biden.

Would you say that Proud Boys numbers increased after the stand back, stand by comment? an investigator asked.

Exponentially. Id say tripled probably, Bertino replied.

Several leaders of the far-right Oath Keepers, including founder Stewart Rhodes, are currently on trial for seditious conspiracy as well, just down the hall from where Bertino entered his plea. Prosecutors say they spent the weeks after Election Day fomenting an armed rebellion against the government and seizing on the opportunity created by the Jan. 6 mob to disrupt the transfer of power.

In documents accompanying his plea, Bertino joined the Proud Boys in 2018 and admitted to attending Washington, D.C., rallies with the group after the 2020 election. He was one of a handful who was stabbed during civil unrest at a Dec. 12, 2020, event which he describes as the reason he wasnt present on Jan. 6.

Bertino was on an encrypted chat with other Proud Boys leaders, including Tarrio, in the weeks before Jan. 6, and he says in his plea documents that he believes the groups plan was to stop the certification of the Electoral College Vote on Jan. 6, even if it involved using force against police and others.

Hours after the attack on the Capitol, Bertino messaged Tarrio saying You know we made this happen and 1776 motherfucker.

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Proud Boys leader pleads guilty to seditious conspiracy over Jan. 6 ...

A high-ranking leader of the right-wing Proud Boys pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, court documents revealed Thursday, making him the first member of the group to do so as its leader awaits trial.

Jeremy Bertino was a lieutenant to Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio, who along with four other members of the group is awaiting trial in December for seditious conspiracy related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

The plea dealwould give the Justice Department a key witness against Tarrio and the others.

The agreement says Bertino did knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with the plans of the other Proud Boys to to oppose by force the authority of the Government of the United States and to delay by force the execution of the laws governing the transfer of power.

A seditious conspiracy convictioncarriesup to 20 years in prison. While a judge will determine Bertinos sentence, the government recommended a roughly five-year prison term for Bertino, as well as a fine totaling anywhere from $20,000 to $200,000.

Bertino, who is barred from owning firearms due to a prior conviction, separately pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm after authorities found six such weapons when they searched his home, including an AR-15 style gun. That charge carries up to 10 years in prison.

Tarrio was initially indicted in March with four other members of the group: Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola.

The government has accused them of having directed, mobilized, and led members of the crowd onto the Capitol grounds and into the Capitol.

The Proud Boys describes itself as a pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world, aka Western Chauvinists.

The plea deal for Bertino comes as the Justice Department had opening arguments this week in its first seditious conspiracy case to go to trial. Far-right militia group leader Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, is on trial along with four other members of the group.

Bertino and Tarrio, like Rhodes, never entered the Capitol that day. While Rhodes remained on the Capitol grounds, Tarrio had been ordered to remain outside of D.C. after having been arrested just a few days prior, and Bertino was also not in the city, as he had recently been stabbed during a brawl.

Bertino continued to participate in planning sessions as he recovered from his injures. At least as early as Jan. 4, 2021, he received encrypted chat messages indicating that members of MOSD leadership were discussing the possibility of storming the Capitol, the Justice Department wrote in a press release announcing the deal.

On Jan. 6, Bertino monitored activities through mainstream and social media, as well as posting in the (Ministry of Self Defense) MOSD chats. He posted messages himself to MOSD leaders and members to encourage and assist in the operation, such as advising those on the grounds of the Capitol to form a spear. Similarly, Bertino posted to his public social media account, DO NOT GO HOME. WE ARE ON THE CUSP OF SAVING THE CONSTITUTION.

Bertino previously spoke with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, telling the panels investigators in a video clip played in one of their hearings that the Proud Boys membership tripled after former President Trump told the groups members to stand back and stand by during a 2020 presidential debate.

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Proud Boys leader pleads guilty to seditious conspiracy