Proud Boys Leader, 3 others guilty of seditious conspiracy

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ASPartOfMe
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04 May 2023, 2:29 pm

Four Proud Boys members found guilty of seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 trial

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Four members of the far-right Proud Boys organization were found guilty Thursday of seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Dominic Pezzola and Zachary Rehl each faced nine counts. All but Pezzola were found guilty on the rare charge of seditious conspiracy under a Civil War-era statute. Tarrio, Biggs, Nordean and Rehl were also found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.

The jury reached only a partial verdict and remains split on whether Pezzola is guilty of the seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct charges. U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly has instructed jurors to continue deliberating on multiple outstanding charges.

Pezzola — who was caught on video smashing in a window with a Capitol Police shield during the breach, and who admitted to his behavior on the stand — was separately charged with stealing the police shield and found guilty Thursday.

Pezzola was also found guilty of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers, while the other four defendants were acquitted on that charge.

Jeremy Bertino, a high-level member of the Proud Boys who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy in October, testified for the prosecution in this latest trial as part of a plea deal, telling jurors that Proud Boys believed they "had to do anything that was necessary to save the country."

Prosecutors argued that the Proud Boys were "thirsting for violence" on Jan. 6 and had organized in advance to stop certification of President Joe Biden's win by "any means necessary, including by force."

Defense attorneys countered that the Justice Department was using the group as a scapegoat for the real person to blame for Jan. 6: Donald Trump.

Two defendants testified during the trial: Rehl, the head of the organization's Philadelphia chapter, and Pezzola, a floor installer from New York whom members of the organization called "Spaz." Just before Rehl was set to be cross-examined, online sleuths surfaced videos that appeared to show him deploying a can of pepper spray toward officers; Rehl denied it at trial and was not charged with assaulting police. Pezzola got heated on the stand, bringing up conspiracy theories about another Jan. 6 participant, Ray Epps, and ranting about the “fake” charges and the “phony” trial.

The biggest challenge prosecutors faced in the trial was convincing a jury that Tarrio, the former Proud Boys chairman, was a part of the conspiracy, given that he spent Jan. 6 at a hotel in Baltimore after being banned from Washington, D.C., the day before. Tarrio, in encrypted messages revealed during the trial, acknowledged receiving a message from someone who wanted to "storm the Capitol" but didn't directly endorse that plan, and prosecutors seemed to concede that much of what happened on Jan. 6 happened spontaneously. What they were able to show was that Tarrio said he wanted a "spectacle" on Jan. 6, and celebrated the attack on the Capitol after it happened, giving the Proud Boys credit for the breach.


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Kraichgauer
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04 May 2023, 4:20 pm

The wheels of justice turn slowly, but they still turn.


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goldfish21
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04 May 2023, 4:20 pm

Good.

Like some news talking guy said about J6, there was the muscle & the hustle. These meatheads were the muscle and they got got. Next up is to go after the hustle -> seditious republicans & the big orange guy.


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