Monthly Archives: February 2023

The Capitol riot trial for Proud Boys leaders promised to be a historic showcase for some of the most compelling evidence of an alleged plot by far-right extremists to halt the transfer of presidential power after the 2020 election.

One month into the trial, there have been plenty of fireworks, but mostly when the jury wasn't in the courtroom.

Lawyers representing the five Proud Boys charged with seditious conspiracy have repeatedly sparred with U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly during breaks in testimony. At least 10 times, those lawyers have argued in vain for him to declare a mistrial.

The judge regularly admonishes lawyers for interrupting him and has threatened to hold them in contempt if it continues. Two defense lawyers at one point floated the idea of withdrawing from the case if Kelly did not rule in their favor on evidentiary matters.

The barrage of bickering has bogged down the proceedings in the federal courthouse, where the Capitol can be seen in the distance from some windows. One recent day in court, defense lawyer Norm Pattis compared the trial to visiting "Gilligan's Island," the title and setting of the 1960s-era sitcom about a shipwrecked boat's crew and passengers.

"It was supposed to be a three-hour tour, and people were stranded together for an infinite period while they worked out their interpersonal difficulties," Pattis quipped.

The tension in the courtroom reflects the high stakes for the Justice Department and the defendants. It's one of the most serious cases to emerge from the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio is perhaps the highest profile person to be charged so far in the assault.

The Proud Boys face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of seditious conspiracy. Acquittals on the rarely used charge which strikes at the heart of what prosecutors say happened that day would be a setback in the government's Jan. 6 investigation, which continues to grow two years later.

Tarrio and four lieutenants are accused of participating in a weekslong plot to keep Democrat Joe Biden out of the White House after he defeated then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Prosecutors say it culminated with Proud Boys mounting a coordinated assault on the Capitol alongside hundreds of other Trump supporters.

Defense lawyers say there's no evidence that the Proud Boys plotted to attack the Capitol and stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6. The lawyers claim prosecutors are mischaracterizing bellicose online banter as a violent plot. They tried unsuccessfully to move the trial out of Washington, arguing that there was no way their clients could get a fair trial in front of a District of Columbia jury.

The Proud Boys trial is on a pace to last several weeks longer than last year's landmark trial for Oath Keepers group leaders and members, who were charged in a separate Jan. 6 case.

In November, a jury convicted Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and another leader of seditious conspiracy after three days of jury selection, 26 days of testimony and two days of closing arguments. A separate trial involving members of the Oath Keepers who face a slew of charges, but not seditious conspiracy also got underway this month.

Jury selection for the Proud Boys case lasted 12 days. After the trial's opening statements on Jan. 12, jurors have heard 16 days of testimony through Friday. Prosecutors are expected to rest their case in late February or early March before the defense team begins presenting testimony.

A dozen of the first 14 prosecution witnesses in the Proud Boys trial have been FBI agents and other law enforcement officials. Jurors also have heard testimony from a former Proud Boys member who cut a plea deal with prosecutors and a British documentary filmmaker who was embedded with the Proud Boys on Jan. 6.

Jurors are often kept waiting in the wings while defense lawyers challenge the admissibility of evidence. In one such exchange, Pattis urged Kelly to reconsider a ruling allowing prosecutors to introduce posts from the social media platform Parler.

"We're offering you a lifeline here because we think you erred," Pattis told the judge.

"Well, I'm offering you the lifeline of obeying my order," Kelly responded.

Kelly has frequently scolded defense lawyers for interrupting and talking over him, warning that he could find them in contempt. At one point, lawyer Nicholas Smith interrupted the judge while the judge was chastising him for an earlier interruption.

One of Tarrio's lawyers asked for a mistrial after a witness said that Tarrio had burned a Black Lives Matter banner at a protest in Washington during a December 2020 demonstration by Trump supporters.

Tarrio was arrested two days before the Jan. 6 riot, charged with vandalizing the banner and ordered to leave the city. Kelly ruled that prosecutors could discuss the vandalism, but not specific details about the banner. Prosecutors allege Tarrio remained in command of the Proud Boys on the ground on Jan. 6 even though he wasn't there.

Carmen Hernandez, a lawyer for Proud Boys chapter leader Zachary Rehl, has repeatedly moved for mistrials, including when she accused a prosecutor of using inflammatory and misleading allegations in his opening statement. Hernandez asked for a mistrial after jurors saw violent videos of Proud Boys street fighting at rallies before Jan. 6.

"It wouldn't be a day in this trial without a mistrial motion," said Kelly, who denied her request.

At least one juror may have sent a signal about the sluggish pace of the trial.

J. Daniel Hull, one of Biggs' lawyers, told the judge on Jan. 19 that he saw a juror nodding off that morning. In response, the judge told lawyers that "focusing their presentations might help that issue."

The rancor started before the jury was even sworn in.

A day before the trial started, Hernandez said she felt compelled to withdraw from the case if the judge allowed prosecutors to show a particular video as evidence. Smith, who represents Proud Boys chapter leader Ethan Nordean, followed up with a similar comment about withdrawing if the judge didn't rule in his favor on an evidentiary matter.

Pattis, a Connecticut-based lawyer who represents Proud Boys organizer Joe Biggs, was briefly sidelined from the case after a judge in his home state suspended his license to practice law for six months. The decision stemmed from Pattis' handling of confidential documents during his representation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in a civil lawsuit. Kelly allowed Pattis to rejoin the trial after opening statements once an appeals court postponed his suspension.

The judge didn't bring jurors into court on Feb. 6 so the lawyers could argue about the relevance of messages that Proud Boys posted on the Telegram platform. Pattis warned that the Telegram evidence alone could add two weeks to the trial "if we're not careful."

"I jokingly told my office I hope to be home by Easter today at the rate things are going," Pattis added.

Trending News

Continued here:

Jan. 6 trial of Proud Boys leaders plagued by bickering between lawyers ...

Trump basically said to go fuck them up, Biggs said on Parler, the social media platform popular with conservatives. This makes me so happy.

His public comments ignited a furor among Proud Boys self-described elders its national leadership who worried that Biggs embrace of violent rhetoric could undercut the groups reputation.

Mainstream republican support hinges on what the president says about us, said Proud Boy Nicholas Ochs. Right now its good.

Trump has been a central aspect of the Proud Boys trial, a specter looming in the background as the group put itself on a path to descend on Washington and, ultimately, take a central role in the breach of the Capitol. Dozens of private chats and text chains revealed by prosecutors show how Proud Boys leaders keyed off Trumps comments and used them to both drive recruitment but also attempt to manage their growing but unruly rank-and-file.

Biggs, Enrique Tarrio the groups national chair at the time Seattle-based Proud Boy Ethan Nordean, and Philadelphia Proud Boy leader Zachary Rehl are now facing seditious conspiracy charges for their central roles in organizing hundreds of Proud Boys to descend on Washington for Jan. 6, and lead them in a march to the Capitol. A fifth defendant, New Yorks Dominic Pezzola, ignited the breach of the Capitol itself when he shattered a Senate-wing window with a stolen police riot shield.

Prosecutors say the group played a crucial role in driving waves of the pro-Trump mob toward the Capitol and then egging it on to surge past barricades and across police lines before entering the Capitol. Prosecutors intend to describe to jurors how several cells of Proud Boys, who marched with the group to the Capitol, dispersed around the Capitol and were prominent in multiple breaches that day.

On Thursday, the 17th day of the trial, prosecutors gave their clearest explanation to jurors about the groups effort to tether itself to Trumps bid to remain in power, to weed out unruly members and to develop a tactical strategy for Jan. 6. They also presented the most significant evidence yet of Tarrios embrace of a plan intended to provide a roadmap for occupying buildings in Washington on Jan. 6.

They also showed separate exchanges Tarrio had with three girlfriends about his impending trip to Washington, D.C. One of them, identified only as Eryka, described a desire to overthrow the government.

The revolution and storming the winter capital is at stake. The revolution is [more] important than anything, Eryka wrote on Dec. 30.

"[T]hats what every waking moment consists of, Tarrio replied.

Eryka then referenced that she had sent Tarrio a document titled 1776 Returns that detailed a plan to occupy federal buildings and force officials to declare a new presidential election. If you dont like my plan, let me know. I will pitch elsewhere. But I want you to be the executor and benefactor of my brilliance, she wrote, asking him not to play games with her.

Im not playing games, Tarrio responded.

Notably, the Jan. 6 select committee last year received testimony from a witness who identified Eryka as a figure in Floridas cryptocurrency community who was a mutual acquaintance of him and Tarrio. The witness, Samuel Armes, described developing some of the ideas at the heart of the 1776 Returns document months before the election as a thought exercise for potential civil unrest. Armes said Eryka appeared to have provided an altered version of that document that had been changed to refer to the 2020 election and included operational proposals.

In a Jan. 3 conversation between Tarrio and a paramour identified only as mamafe, Tarrio described the gear he was planning to take with him to Washington a kit that included a plate carrier, Baofeng radio, goggles, and other items. The woman joked with Tarrio about how her child, if hes anything like you, Im in so much trouble.

Hes gonna be like mom, Im gonna go take the Capitol and Im gonna be like, where, wheres that? Why? she said.

Tarrio replied, The Winter Palace.

Defense attorneys have long criticized the governments reliance on the 1776 Returns document to prove the alleged seditious conspiracy, noting that it doesnt call for violence rather it recommends sit-ins it doesnt explicitly mention the Capitol as a target and theres no evidence Tarrio shared it with anyone else charged in the conspiracy.

Much of Thursdays testimony focused on the groups rising alarm after Trumps defeat in the Nov. 7, 2020 presidential election.

wtf happened? They called it. Now we have to mobilize, wrote North Carolina Proud Boys leader Jeremy Bertino in a message to Tarrio on Nov. 7.

Bertino told Tarrio about a plan to have a Proud Boys presence in Raleigh the next day, and Tarrio recommended that supporters not wear the groups typical black and yellow attire: The campaign asked us to not wear colors to these events, Tarrio said, without elaborating on who he had spoken to. Keep identifying colors to a minimum.

The group would go on to have a significant presence at a November pro-Trump march in Washington D.C. and a subsequent one on Dec. 12 that turned violent. Several Proud Boys were stabbed in street clashes with counterprotesters. Bertino suffered a severe wound that landed him in the hospital.

In the days that immediately followed, the groups leaders exchanged dozens of messages lamenting the chaos and disorganization that led to group members getting hurt. Tarrio griped that the group included too many members who refused to follow orders.

This was a learning experience on how to march 1000 guys down a street, he said in a Dec. 17 chat with Proud Boys chapter presidents. I posted rules that if they would have been followed we wouldnt even be talking about it.

The internal grousing became even more urgent just two days later, when at 1:42 a.m. Trump issued a call to his supporters to make a stand in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, the day Congress was set to certify Bidens victory. Be there, will be wild, Trump tweeted.

Within 20 minutes, Tarrio and Biggs began texting about some perceptions of the group as a drinking club known for street skirmishes with left-wing protesters. Tarrio said he didnt believe the group still fit that drinking club image anymore even though the perception had lingered.

The drinking stuff helps mask and recruit, Tarrio said, Although some chapters dont leave the their [sic] bars at home.

Lets get radical and get real men, Biggs replied. And I dont mean that in a crazy wayWe need to portray a more masculine vibe.

Later the same day, after a brief text exchange, Tarrio convened a 15-minute FaceTime call with Nordean and Biggs.

Trumps calling the troops in on the 6th, Biggs said to the group a few hours later.

Amid their talks, Tarrio created a new encrypted chat channel to prepare the groups Jan. 6 plans, calling it the Ministry of Self-Defense. That channel has become a focal point of the governments investigation.

Prosecutors particularly focused on the groups use of the channel to discuss tactics for Jan. 6. Members of the group discussed a strategy to break into small teams to avoid being choked off by police blockades. They also discussed avoiding wearing the groups traditional black-and-yellow attire and a potential plan to wear all-black a tactic known as black bloc to mimic far-left protestors who have frequently clashed with Proud Boys.

The decision not to wear Proud Boys colors was an extensive subject of the groups conversation in the days before Jan. 6. Tarrio repeatedly urged different sets of Proud Boys leaders to refuse to bring any identifying gear. When some in the group pushed back, worried that the decision could result in Proud Boys getting blamed for the destruction of others, Tarrio dismissed the concern.

Misinformation is a good tool, Tarrio said in one chat with Proud Boys about the groups plan not to wear identifying black-and-yellow attire on Jan. 6. Then, after a pause, he said, Fuck Did I just goebbels this thing?

Members of the group also discussed what gear to bring to D.C. for Jan. 6, including body armor, Baofeng radios, backup phone batteries, pepper spray, stab proof vests, knuckles, goggles and Sudecon wipes, which are used to decontaminate OC spray.

See the original post here:

Proud Boys sedition trial shows group keying off Trump comments

I didnt hear this voice note till now, he responded on Jan. 4, 2021, with his own audio file. You want to storm the Capitol.

The Proud Boys, like any gang, have long had an internal lingo, communicating together in a kind of collective code. One of their common slogans Proud of Your Boy was adopted ironically from a song from the Broadway musical Aladdin. Another catchphrase Uhuru is the Swahili word for freedom.

On Wednesday, Conor Mulroe, a prosecutor on the case, said that the word Minecraft a reference to the popular video game appeared frequently in the Telegram chats as a cipher meaning violence.

Its a somewhat tongue-in-cheek tagline they put at the end of a statement when its a facially incriminating statement, Mr. Mulroe told Judge Timothy J. Kelly, who is overseeing the case.

On Thursday, the government showed the jury several examples of how the Proud Boys used the term.

On Oct. 6, 2020, Mr. Rehl, the president of the groups Philadelphia chapter, posted a message to the Official Presidents Chat complaining about restrictions put in place because of the pandemic.

I really hope to see people start fighting back against these tyrants, in minecraft, he wrote.

Five days before the group marched on the Capitol, Mr. Stewart used the term in response to a post about the police in Washington closing roads on Jan. 6.

Lets quit playing games and oblige them in Minecraft, he wrote.

Then, on Jan. 4, 2021 the day Mr. Tarrio was arrested after an act of vandalism at a previous pro-Trump rally in Washington Mr. Wolkind posted a message in which he seemed to be advising his fellow Proud Boys not to communicate openly about criminal activity.

If youre talkin about playing Minecraft, he wrote, you just make sure you dont use your phone at all or even have it anywhere around you.

More:

Four Takeaways From the Proud Boys Jan. 6 Sedition Trial So Far