1/6 Insurrection Investigation

[Rick Plant]

Initial appearance set for Tuesday in Capitol riot case of Rockne Earles.

Earles of New Mexico is charged with assaulting and resisting police. Feds allege Earles grabbed and threw an officer to the ground using "what appears to be a significant amount of force."

[Rick Plant]

Trial of Proud Boys Another Test for January 6 Prosecutors


FILE - Proud Boys members Zachary Rehl, left, and Ethan Nordean walk toward the U.S. Capitol in Washington, in support of President Donald Trump, Jan. 6, 2021.


WASHINGTON — Five members the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, are on trial in Washington for seditious conspiracy in connection with the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.

The defendants are accused of plotting and coordinating the bloody rampage in an attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power from then-President Donald Trump to Joe Biden, the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

If convicted, the defendants could face up to 20 years in prison.

The trial, now in its fourth month, is also a critical test of the government's resolve to pursue the rarely used seditious conspiracy charge against those who planned and directed the attack.

In two earlier cases, juries convicted Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and a top lieutenant of seditious conspiracy in November, and found four other members of the anti-government militia guilty of the charge in January.


FILE - This artist sketch depicts the trial of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, center, and four others charged with seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, in Washington, Oct. 6, 2022.


"The stakes are every bit as high in this case," said Jordan Strauss, a former federal prosecutor, now a managing director at Kroll, a New York-based corporate investigation and risk consulting company.

It remains unclear how the jury will judge the Proud Boys case. The trial is nearing a conclusion as the defense wraps up its case and the jury begins deliberations.

A conviction would mark a significant victory for the U.S. Justice Department as it continues to hunt down the perpetrators of the attack two years later.

Here are several questions about the case:


Who are the Proud Boys?

The Proud Boys are a right-wing extremist group that emerged during the 2016 presidential election.

They describe themselves as a "pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world; aka Western Chauvinists."

However, extremism researchers say that public persona is a smokescreen.


FILE - A video is displayed by the committee that claims to shows Proud Boys in front of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, June 9, 2022.


In reality, they say, the group harbors a violent agenda and promotes misogyny, Islamophobia, transphobia and anti-immigration sentiment.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the Proud Boys have been "regulars" at Trump rallies and far-right demonstrations, including the 2017 Unite the Right Rally where one counter-protester was killed.

Former FBI special agent Tom O'Connor compared the Proud Boys to thuggish "soccer hooligans" of the extreme right, in contrast to the Oath Keepers who fancy themselves as "the special forces of the far right."

The Proud Boys were thrust into the spotlight during the 2020 presidential campaign when Trump, speaking during a presidential debate, exhorted: "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by!"

A Congressional committee investigating the January 6 riot at the Capitol singled out the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers as two of several extremist groups that spearheaded the assault.

Who are the defendants?

Along with Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the Proud Boys, the group includes three local ring leaders – Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean and Zachary Rehl.


FILE - Proud Boys including Joseph Biggs, front left, walk toward the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.


The fifth defendant, Dominic Pezzola, is a former Marine from Rochester, New York, who joined the Proud Boys after the 2020 election.

Pezzola became the face of the January 6 attack when he was filmed using a stolen police riot shield to smash a window, clearing the way for a mob of rioters to storm the building.


What are the charges?

The Proud Boys face a total of nine charges, including seditious conspiracy.

Federal law defines seditious conspiracy as a plot to use force to "overthrow," "oppose" the authority of the government or "prevent" the execution of its laws.

The indictment against the defendants alleges that they conspired to ‘"oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power by force."

In addition to seditious conspiracy, the five men are charged with conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, destroying government property, assaulting a federal office, and other charges.

Pezolla faces an additional robbery charge.


What do prosecutors say?

Prosecutors say the Proud Boys viewed a Biden presidency as an existential threat and were determined to stop him from taking office, even by force if necessary.

To back up their claim, prosecutors offered a trove of evidence, including social media posts, texts, emails, and phone calls exchanged by the Proud Boys in the run-up to January 6, 2021.


FILE - Proud Boys leader Henry "Enrique" Tarrio wears a hat that says The War Boys during a rally in Portland, Oregon, on Sept. 26, 2020.


As early as November 16, less than two weeks after the election, Tarrio posted an ominous message online.

"If Biden steals this election," Tarrio wrote, the Proud Boys "will be political prisoners. We won't go quietly … I promise."

Jeremy Bertino, one of two ex-Proud Boys to testify against them, told the jury that the group believed "they had to take the reins" and lead the people to "all out revolution."


FILE - Proud Boys member Jeremy Bertino, second from left, joins other supporters of President Donald Trump at a rally at Freedom Plaza, in Washington, Dec. 12, 2020.


In late December 2020, as Trump's lawsuits to overturn the election results floundered, Tarrio and his cohorts created a "national rally planning" group that they called "Ministry of Self Defense."

That's when the Proud Boys began to prepare for January 6, the day Congress would certify Biden's victory, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors say while the Proud Boys leaders didn't bring firearms to Washington, they "enlisted" their members as "tools" to carry out the attack.

Tarrio was arrested in Washington two days before the Capitol breach and banned from the city. But he stayed in touch with the other four as they led the charge on the Capitol.

"Make no mistake," he boasted in a message after the attack. "We did this."


What is the defense's argument?

The defense has claimed that Tarrio's message and other supposedly incriminating messages exchanged among the Proud Boys had been distorted and twisted out of context.

The prosecution, defense lawyers insisted, showed no proof of a plan to storm the Capitol.

It was Trump, not the Proud Boys on trial, who "unleashed the mob" that breached the Capitol, a lawyer for Tarrio said in January.

The Proud Boys, the lawyers said, were simply caught up in a spontaneous eruption of fury over Trump's defeat.

Defense lawyers have also challenged the prosecution's theory that the defendants deployed other members as "tools" in the Capitol breach.

In a risky move for the defense, two of the five defendants took the stand in their own defense this month, trying to downplay their role in the attack.

Echoing other defense witnesses, they insisted they had not heard of any plans to attack the Capitol ahead of time.

Rehl, the leader of the Proud Boys in Philadelphia, said the Proud Boys were just following the "rowdy" crowd.


FILE - Rioters, including Dominic Pezzola, center with police shield, are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol, Jan. 6, 2021


Pezzola, the Proud Boy from New York, said the Proud Boys were "acting as trespassing protesters" rather than an invading force.

But other defense witnesses were put on the spot. Under cross examination by prosecutors, they admitted that the Proud Boys were more bent on wreaking havoc than they had let on.


What do experts say about the case?

The trial's outcome is up in the air, but experts say the Proud Boys face an uphill battle.

The seditious conspiracy charge doesn't necessarily require prosecutors to prove all of the Proud Boys actually committed violence, Strauss noted.

All prosecutors need to show is that the group "conspired" to sabotage the presidential transfer of power.

"Conspiracy can look like giving comfort or equipping someone or helping someone plan for an act of violence, while knowing what they are going to do," Strauss said.

O'Connor, the former FBI special agent, concurred.

"The Proud Boys didn't just show up on January 6," O'Connor said. "It took some coordination and effort to take the sheep that followed along and went towards the capitol in large numbers."

The jury will ultimately determine whether the Proud Boys' actions amounted to seditious conspiracy, O'Connor said.

"That's our system and no matter which way it goes, you have to accept the jury's verdict on that," he said.

https://www.voanews.com/a/trial-of-proud-boys-another-test-for-january-6-prosecutors-/7060880.html

[Richard Smith]

Still no sign of the Nashville shooter's manifesto after a month and counting.  Even after it caused an insurrection in the TN state house.  Nothing to see there.  Just government suppression of information for political purposes.  In violation of numerous laws.   I'm sure the leftist media won't stand for this.  They are unbiased arbiters of truth and justice who won't stand for government coverups.  LOL.

[Rick Plant]

Still no sign of the Nashville shooter's manifesto after a month and counting.  Even after it caused an insurrection in the TN state house.  Nothing to see there.  Just government suppression of information for political purposes.  In violation of numerous laws.   I'm sure the leftist media won't stand for this.  They are unbiased arbiters of truth and justice who won't stand for government coverups.  LOL.

There was no "insurrection" in the Tennessee State Capitol. Post a declaration of an "insurrection" from the Governor of Tennessee. You won't be able to because there wasn't one.         

Students with homemade signs were protesting gun violence. That's not an "insurrection".  

[Rick Plant]

'Goodness gracious!' DC judge snaps at Proud Boys lawyer in the final days of the trial



U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly in Washington, D.C. snapped at one of the lawyers of the Proud Boys in court Monday. Lawfare editor Roger Parloff has spent the last 61 days live-tweeting 61 days live-tweeting what he observes in the trial that isn't being streamed to the public, only the audio has been available at times.

The top five members of the Proud Boys that are appearing in court face "a ten-count indictment, the government alleges that five Proud Boy defendants ... conspired to oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power by force," Parloff explained in January when the trial began. The men are former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola.

Monday marked closing statements from the lawyers and theoretically should be the final day of the trial, and the next steps are the jury's decision.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough asked the judge for a sidebar as the Proud Boys lawyer walked through all of the things they took issue with something said by the Proud Boys' lawyer.

Nicholas Smith, attorney for Ethan Nordean, accused the prosecutors of building a case on “misdirection and innuendo.” He went on to say that the prosecutors repeatedly played clips of Trump in an effort to manipulate the jury.

“Does that prove some conspiracy by the men here?” Smith asked jurors. “We all know it doesn’t.”

He went on to cite the definition of seditious conspiracy and argue that the government hasn't shown any proof other than the men engaged in a protest and march. He said that the prosecutors hadn't shown when an agreement was reached or by whom, and if there was a conspiracy, then the men would have been aware of a plan. The government prosecutors objected to the comment, which was sustained by the judge. That's when the court reporter asked for a 10-minute break.

When the jury left, Judge Kelly chastised the Proud Boys' lawyers. He said that so much of the closing statements are consistent with how the lawyer has conducted himself throughout the case.

"You've got misstatements of the law. You've stated them, and now you've got a graphic. When you're done, I'm going to instruct the juror that what you've told them is wrong. It's not the law land. It's quite misleading. Tell me why you should tell them what the law is and not me."

Smith claimed the other prosecutors instructed the jury on the law in their statements.

"We're not reading law that inconsistent — it's from a supreme court case," said Smith

"It's taken out of context," the judge said. He also argued that Smith has repeatedly commented on whose been charged and who has not. "We've litigated this many times, but goodness gracious."

After a back and forth, the judge told Smith, "I halve to correct them after you're done. That is not the law and they are to disregard it. This is what happens when we take a lot of time to litigate jury instructions and you disregard them."

Read the full thread here: https://twitter.com/rparloff/status/1650572540710903817

[Rick Plant]

Closing arguments in the marathon Jan 6 seditious conspiracy trial of the group of accused Proud Boys....including Domenic Pezzola.

Pezzola was cross-examined last week....He's accused of smashing open Capitol window with police riot shield.

[Rick Plant]

Proud Boys were ready for ‘all-out war’ before January 6, prosecutors argue

The neo-fascist group’s leader and four lieutenants are accused of seditious conspiracy to forcibly stop the transfer of power in 2021


Proud Boys members Zachary Rehl, left, and Ethan Nordean walk toward the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP


Ready for “all-out war”, leaders of the far-right Proud Boys viewed themselves as foot soldiers for Donald Trump as he clung to power after the 2020 election, a prosecutor said on Monday at the close of a historic trial over the January 6 Capitol attack.

After more than three months of testimony, jurors began hearing closing arguments in the seditious conspiracy case accusing the former Proud Boys national chairman, Enrique Tarrio, and four lieutenants of plotting to forcibly stop the transfer of power.

The Proud Boys were “lined up behind Donald Trump and willing to commit violence on his behalf”, prosecutor Conor Mulroe said. “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 justice department has worked to link the violence of 6 January 2021 to Trump. Prosecutors have repeatedly shown a video clip of Trump telling the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during his first debate with Joe Biden.

Tarrio is one of the top targets of the Capitol attack investigation. He wasn’t in Washington but is accused of orchestrating it from afar. Defense attorneys say there is no evidence of a conspiracy or a plan to attack the Capitol.

Nicholas Smith, an attorney for the former Proud Boys chapter leader Ethan Nordean, said prosecutors built their case on “misdirection and innuendo”, accusing them of repeatedly playing the clip of Trump to manipulate jurors.

“Does that prove some conspiracy by the men here?” Smith asked. “We all know it doesn’t.”

Mulroe said a conspiracy can be an unspoken and implicit “mutual understanding, reached with a wink and a nod”.

Seditious conspiracy, a civil war-era charge that can be difficult to prove, carries a sentence of up to 20 years. The Proud Boys face other charges too.

The justice department has secured seditious conspiracy convictions against the founder and members of another far-right group, the Oath Keepers. But this is the first major trial involving the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist group that remains a force in Republican politics.

The government’s case is founded on messages leaders and members exchanged in encrypted chats and posted on social media before, during and after the January 6 attack. The messages show Proud Boys celebrating when Trump told them to “stand back and stand by”. After the election, they raged online about baseless claims of a stolen election and what would happen when Biden took office.


Dominic Pezzola, center with police shield, inside the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP


“If Biden steals this election, [the Proud Boys] will be political prisoners,” Tarrio posted. “We won’t go quietly … I promise.”

Jurors also saw gleeful messages posted during the Capitol riot when a group marched to the Capitol and some of them entered the building after the mob overwhelmed police.

“Make no mistake,” Tarrio wrote. “We did this.”

Prosecutors showed videos during closing statements, including one that appeared to show defendant Zachary Rehl spraying police with pepper spray. Confronted with the images earlier in the trial, Rehl said he didn’t remember it and couldn’t tell if it was him. Mulroe said the images show “he did it and he lied under oath about it”.

Tarrio, a Miami resident, Nordean and Rehl are on trial with Joseph Biggs and Dominic Pezzola. Nordean, of Auburn, Washington, was a chapter president. Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, was a self-described organizer. Rehl was president of a chapter in Philadelphia. Pezzola was a member from Rochester, New York.

Tarrio was arrested in Washington two days before the January 6 attack on charges that he burned a church’s Black Lives Matter banner. He followed a judge’s order to leave town.

Defense attorneys called several current and former Proud Boys, trying to portray the group as a drinking club that only engaged in violence for self-defense.

“If you don’t like what some of them say, that doesn’t make them guilty,” Rehl’s attorney, Carmen Hernandez, told jurors.

Rehl said the group had “no objective” on 6 January. Pezzola testified that he got “caught up in the craziness” and acted alone when he used a riot shield to smash a Capitol window.

The prosecutor told jurors the Proud Boys leaders wanted to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s victory “by any means necessary, including force”.

“You want to call this a drinking club? You want to call this a men’s fraternal organization? Ladies and gentlemen, let’s call this what it is … a violent gang that came together to use force against its enemies,” Mulroe said.

Key witnesses included two former Proud Boys who pleaded guilty to riot-related charges and are cooperating with the government in hope of lighter sentences.

The first, Matthew Greene, testified that group members were expecting a “civil war”. The second, Jeremy Bertino, testified that he viewed the Proud Boys as leaders of the conservative movement and “the tip of the spear”.

The Proud Boys’ defense mirrored arguments made by lawyers for members of the Oath Keepers: that there was no evidence of a plan to attack the Capitol.

Prosecutors secured seditious conspiracy convictions against six Oath Keepers, while three were acquitted. Those three, however, were convicted of obstructing certification of Biden’s victory.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/24/proud-boys-jan-6-attack-trial-closing-arguments

[Rick Plant]

Proud Boys were ‘Donald Trump’s army,’ prosecutor says in closing arguments of seditious conspiracy trial

Washington CNN — After months of legal battles, infighting between defense lawyers and dozens of rejected mistrial motions, the federal criminal trial against five Proud Boys accused of plotting to attack the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, moved to its final stage Monday.

One prosecutor and two defense attorneys gave their closing arguments to the Washington, DC, jury tasked with deciding whether Enrique Tarrio, Dominic Pezzola, Zachary Rehl, Joseph Biggs and Ethan Nordean are guilty of several federal crimes, including seditious conspiracy.

The Justice Department’s Conor Mulroe argued that the defendants stirred fellow members of the far-right Proud Boys toward violence in the lead up to January 6 and directed them that day to attack the iconic building.

Attorneys for Nordean and Rehl repeatedly said that the mountains of evidence only showed vulgar, stupid messages from their clients and violence from others in the crowd on January 6 – none of which amounted to the seditious conspiracy charge their clients face.

All five of the defendants have pleaded not guilty. Closing arguments are expected to continue into Tuesday.

DOJ: ‘The Capitol was the focus from the start’

In the lead-up to January 6, Mulroe argued, the defendants were infuriated by then-President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss and began calling for revolutionary action to oppose the incoming administration.

"The founders of this country fought to create a nation where the leader is chosen by the will of the people and power is handed over peacefully following a process of law,” Mulroe said. “These defendants saw themselves as Donald Trump’s army, fighting to keep their leader in power no matter what the law or the courts had to say about it.”

Mulroe showed the jury countless messages and videos the defendants sent to one another in the weeks and months before the attack, calling for violence against politicians, police and left-wingers, arguing the five men “had been thirsting for violence and organizing for action.”

“To these defendants, politics was no longer something for the debating floor or voting booth. To them, politics meant actual physical combat, a battle between good and evil in the most literal sense,” Mulroe said.

“The Capitol was the focus from the start,” he said. “They made it plain as day why they were there. It was not to see Donald Trump’s speech, it was not to protect patriots, it was certainly not to protest peacefully. They were there to threaten and, if necessary, use force to stop the certification of the election.”

As the attack unfolded, Mulroe said, several of the defendants took part in breaking down police barriers, signaled directions to one another, and at a critical moment when police had reestablished a line in front of the Capitol, the men pressed forward.

Playing the jury audio clips of panicked US Capitol Police officers begging for backup as the mob breached the Capitol grounds, Mulroe said, “That is what it looks like when the process of government is brought to a screeching halt. Those radio calls are the sound of a 200-year tradition of the peaceful transfer of power being shattered.”

He added: “Ladies and gentlemen, this was a national disgrace. To them, it was mission accomplished. They had done it. They had stopped the certification.”

But in the days after the riot, Mulroe said, and the defendants became angry more wasn’t done to keep Trump in power.

“They came up short,” Mulroe added. “So now, they are facing consequences.”

Defense attorney: ‘Even if you don’t like what some of them say, it doesn’t make them guilty’

Defense attorneys told jurors their clients never entered a conspiracy to attack the Capitol and chided prosecutors for trying to connect their clients to Trump.

Nordean’s attorney, Nicholas Smith, argued that prosecutors only used the infamous video from a 2020 debate stage where Trump told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” to rile up the jury.

“It was played to manipulate you into confusing your dislike for a politician with whether these men are guilty of a crime,” Smith said. “Whatever the former president’s personal crimes are, you have seen no evidence that Mr. Trump conspired with Ethan Nordean from Seattle.”

The prosecutors’ case, Smith said, “was designed to make you hate these men and find them fearful,” adding that several of the statements shown by prosecutors were from before January 6 and that videos of violence between Proud Boys and others played for the jury were from past rallies immediately after the 2020 election.

"The loud sounds and scary and chaotic scenes” from those rallies, Smith argued, were tactic by prosecutors. “It was designed to make you hate these men and find them fearful,” he said.

Smith and Carmen Hernandez, who represents Rehl, argued there was not a single message, video or statement from the defendants outlining a specific plan to stop Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election on January 6.

Hernandez also rebuked the “mountain of evidence” prosecutors showed as inflammatory, saying that “much of it, in my humble opinion, (had) nothing to do with Mr. Rehl.”

“We think these guys are racist and sexist,” Carmen said, pointing at the five defendants sitting in the courtroom, “and they may be. But that’s not what they’re charged with. Even if you don’t like what some of them say, it doesn’t make them guilty.”

Both Hernandez and Smith told jurors that while their clients acted inappropriately, neither of them had come to Washington, DC, as part of an explicit plan for violence in the Capitol.

“Were not debating for a second that it wasn’t inappropriate for a person to go into the Capitol building, of course it was,” Smith said, adding that Nordean “should not have gone into the Capitol. He should not have been where he was.”

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/24/politics/proud-boys-seditious-conspiracy-trial-closing-arguments/index.html