(WASHINGTON) Four activists from the far-right group The Proud Boys, implicated in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, were found guilty Thursday of sedition, an extremely rare charge.
Their former leader, Enrique Tarrio, is among the four convicted.
Five members of the group are being tried in Washington for having, along with a crowd of Republican President Donald Trump’s supporters, caused chaos in the congressional headquarters, when elected officials ratified the election of his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, in the House of Representatives – the white one. .
Another member, Dominic Pezzola, was found not guilty of sedition, a charge punishable by 20 years in prison, which involves planning to use force to oppose the government.
However, he was found guilty of stealing state property. In a video that went viral, one of them, Dominic Pezzola, can be seen handling a riot shield — stolen from the police — and smashing a window in the Capitol.
The five activists were convicted of other, less serious charges such as obstructing Congress or destroying public property.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said he promised after the storming of the Capitol that the authorities would do everything to punish those responsible for this heinous attack that sought to disrupt the cornerstone of our democracy, the peaceful transfer of power.
Enrique Tarrio, the former national president of the Proud Boys, who was arrested in Miami in March 2022, was not in Washington on January 6, but was being sued for leading the attack on the Temple of American Democracy by members of this neo-fascist organization.
Since the January 6, 2021 attack, more than 1,000 people have been arrested and charged in connection with the Capitol assault investigation. But only twelve of them were charged with sedition.
After two trials, which concluded in November and January, six members of another far-right militia, the Oath Keepers, were found guilty of sedition.
underground position
Difficult to prove, this charge is seldom used, and the previous conviction under this heading, before those of November and January, goes back nearly a quarter of a century.
The trial of the five members of the Proud Boys began in December in a court in the federal capital.
Stuart Rhodes, founder of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, was among the members of this group who were found guilty in November of “sedition”.
According to the indictment filed by Enrique Tarrio, Tarrio spoke with Stuart Rhodes on January 5 in an underground parking lot in Washington and kept in contact with members of the Proud Boys who entered the Capitol.
Four of his aides were accused of directly participating in the attack.
shock wave
On a cold winter’s day on January 6, 2021, thousands of President Donald Trump’s supporters gathered in Washington to protest the outcome of the 2020 election that saw the former real estate mogul lose.
A mob storms the seat of the US Congress, sending shockwaves around the world.
At least five people were killed on the sidelines of the attack and 140 police officers were wounded.
Nearly two years after the incident, a parliamentary inquiry into the assault has recommended that former President Donald Trump be charged with criminal charges, including advocacy of insurrection and conspiracy against the US state.
The decision is non-binding, and yet it was historic, as it targets a former head of state. Donald Trump immediately denounced a maneuver aimed, according to him, at blocking his new candidacy for the presidency.
But the sedition convictions in the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys trials could increase the pressure on the former US president, who is being targeted by the attorney general’s criminal investigation looking specifically at his role in the assault on the Capitol.
