Proud Boys leader, members convicted of seditious conspirary in U.S. Capitol attack | CBC News

Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was convicted on Thursday of orchestrating a plot for members of his far-right extremist group to attack the U.S. Capitol in a desperate bid to keep Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 presidential election.

A jury in Washington, D.C., found Tarrio and three others guilty of seditious conspiracy after hearing from dozens of witnesses over more than three months in one of the most serious cases brought in the stunning attack that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, as the world watched on live TV.

Those other defendants were Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl. The jury has not reached a verdict on that count concerning defendant Dominic Pezzola, and have been instructed to continue deliberating.

All five men were convicted of conspiracy to prevent members of Congress from discharging their duties.

Leader not in D.C. on Jan. 6

It’s a significant milestone for the Justice Department, which has now secured seditious conspiracy convictions against the leaders of two major extremist groups prosecutors say were intent on keeping Democrat Joe Biden out of the White House at all costs. The Justice Department hadn’t tried a seditious conspiracy case in a decade before a jury convicted another extremist group leader, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, of the Civil War-era charge last year.

The charge carries a possible prison sentence of up to 20 years. Tarrio was a top target of what has become the largest Justice Department investigation in American history. He led the neo-fascist group — known for street fights with left-wing activists — when Trump infamously told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during his first debate with Biden.

Tarrio wasn’t in Washington on Jan. 6, but prosecutors said he organized and directed the attack by Proud Boys who stormed the Capitol.

LISTEN | A history of the Proud Boys (from 2021):

Defence lawyers said there was no plan to attack the Capitol or stop Congress’s certification of Biden’s win. A lawyer for Tarrio sought to push the blame onto Trump, arguing the former president incited the pro-Trump mob’s attack when he urged the crowd near the White House to “fight like hell.”

The origins of the Proud Boys stretch back about a decade, with Canadian Gavin McInnes a founder.

Over the course of two Oath Keepers trials, Rhodes and five other members were convicted of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors said was a separate plot to forcibly halt the transfer of presidential power from Trump to Biden. Three defendants were acquitted of the sedition charge, but convicted of obstructing Congress’s certification of Biden’s electoral victory.

The Justice Department has yet to disclose how much prison time it will seek when the Oath Keepers are sentenced next month.