MIAMI (AP) — A leader in the far-right Proud Boys extremist group will remain jailed until his trial on charges that he remotely led a plot to stop Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory.
In a Miami courtroom Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Lauren F. Louis cited the danger that prosecutors say Henry “Enrique” Tarrio poses to the community. The judge said her decision would be explained in detail later in a written order.
Though he wasn’t at the Capitol with other members of the Proud Boys during the violent insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors say Tarrio created the leadership structure, organized the group of men and directed them to the Capitol. They say Tarrio organized encrypted chats with Proud Boys members in the weeks before the attack, had a 42 second phone call with another member of the group who was moving in and out of the building during the riot and took credit for the chaos at the Capitol.
“This is a crime that struck at the heart of our democracy,” said prosecutor Jason McCullough. “It is difficult to imagine something that is graver than this crime.”
A week before the riot, an unnamed person sent Tarrio a document that laid out plans for occupying a few “crucial buildings” in Washington on Jan. 6, including House and Senate office buildings around the Capitol, the indictment says. The nine-page document was titled “1776 Returns” and called for having as “many people as possible” to “show our politicians We the People are in charge,” according to the indictment.
People familiar with the document say it added substantial new details about the scope and complexity of the plan it set out for directing an effort to occupy six House and Senate office buildings and the Supreme Court last Jan. 6.
Proud Boys members describe the group as a politically incorrect men’s club for “Western chauvinists.” Its members frequently have brawled with antifascist activists at rallies and protests.
On the morning of Jan. 6, group members met at the Washington Monument and marched to the Capitol before then-President Donald Trump finished speaking to thousands of supporters at a rally near the White House.
Just before Congress convened a joint session to certify the presidential election results, a group of Proud Boys followed a crowd of people who breached barriers at a pedestrian entrance to the Capitol grounds, an indictment says. Several Proud Boys also entered the Capitol building after the mob smashed windows and forced open doors.
More than three dozen of the more than 750 people charged in the Capitol siege have been identified by federal authorities as Proud Boys leaders, members or associates.
At the rally, Trump repeated falsehoods about widespread fraud in the election and told supporters to “fight like hell.” Election officials and courts across the country rejected the claims of fraud.
