Former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio and three other members of the far-right Proud Boys group have been found guilty of seditious conspiracy by a federal jury in Washington, D.C.
Jurors also convicted Tarrio and the others of obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging their duties, obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder and destruction of government property with value of over $1,000 in one of the most important cases to date stemming from the siege on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Jurors found defendant Dominic Pezzola not guilty of seditious conspiracy. Pezzola is well known for taking a shield from a police officer on Jan. 6 and using it to bash in a window at the Capitol.
The convictions amount to a significant victory for the Justice Department, which has now secured them against top leaders of both the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers for their roles in the attempt to keep former President Trump in power and stop certification of the 2020 election.
“Today’s verdict makes clear the Justice Department will do everything in its power to defend the American people and to defend democracy,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a brief statement at the building’s headquarters.
He praised the skill and courage of the prosecutors who have worked on the January 6th cases and said they had secured more than 600 convictions. Garland said that work would continue.
“Politics was no longer something for the debating floor or the voting booth,” prosecutor Conor Mulroe told jurors in his closing argument last week. “For them, politics meant actual physical violence. … And…
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