Enrique Tarrio, leader of the far-right Proud Boys organizationThe Cuban descent was sentenced this Tuesday by the federal court for the District of Columbia. 22 years in prison for being the “ultimate leader of the conspiracy” that ended the Capitol attack American on January 6, 2021.
The punishment for the leader of the fan group of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) is the highest of any punishment for the leaders of the nationalist group. guilty of rebellion Last May, after a four-month trial.
This also comes after the highest of those involved and the other four ringleaders were sentenced to between 10 and 18 years in prison last week.
US Attorney General seeks 33 years in prison for TarrioFor believing that 39-year-old Joe Biden is the ringleader of a conspiracy to undermine American democracy by organizing violent activities against Congress on the day his victory will be confirmed. At the hearing on Tuesday, where the verdict was read and Tarrio attended in his orange prison overalls, the Prosecutor’s Office said, “We will have nothing without a peaceful transition of power.”
Before Tarrio heard his sentence, and after some of his relatives intervened and begged the judge’s forgiveness, he apologized, expressing how sorry he was for what had happened. “The events of January 6 are an event that should never be celebrated,” he said, his voice cracking, “a national disgrace.” In his speech, he added that his candidate (Trump) lost the elections on November 3, 2020; this is a vision that is completely opposite to what the protesters who embraced the fallacy of election fraud were thinking that day, something that Trump himself continues to advocate.
Born to a Cuban family in Miami and leader of the group since 2018, Tarrio was not in Washington when the attack on the Capitol took place because he had an order barring him from approaching the capital a few days before he was arrested for burning. A flag at a historic African-American community church. He was in a hotel in Baltimore at the time of the attack, about 70 kilometers from the Capitol. had spent the previous days sending instructions to other members The Proud Boys talked about what they would do in the march that Trump called with the slogan ‘Stop stealing’ that day.
On this detail, his lawyers tried to base the defense while he was not at the scene. “My client’s plan was not to damage property or attack security forces,” said one of the lawyers. But Judge Timothy Kelly was clear that as the “ultimate leader of the conspiracy,” he was directly involved in certain events and “invaluable” tradition of devolution that harmed property, people, and the very core of the United States. stated today.
Last Friday, the organization’s leader in Seattle, Ethan Nordean, was sentenced to 18 years in prison. He was seen directing a group of protesters with a megaphone that day, shortly before the start of the riot. The same day, Dominic Pezzola was sentenced to 10 years in prison for breaking the first window that protesters entered the Capitol with a stolen police shield. And the day before, Tarrio’s lieutenant Joseph Biggs and Philadelphia’s former leader Zachary Rehl announced their verdicts, which were sentenced to 17 and 15 years in prison, respectively. Rehl, Biggs, Nordean, and Tarrio were convicted in May of conspiracy to start a riot. Pezzola was cleared of this charge but was found guilty of assault, resisting law enforcement and theft of state property.
According to the Justice Department, the attack began at 10 a.m. when Biggs, Rehl, and others persuaded about 200 people to go through the Ellipse park south of the White House, over multiple security barriers, towards the Capitol Building. January 6, 2021 About 10,000 people, most of them Trump supporters, marched on the Capitol Building, and about 800 people stormed the building. There were five deaths and about 140 injured agents. More than 1,000 people have been arrested since then, and 350 have been charged with assault or obstruction of law, according to Justice Department data. Many flee from Justice.
In another judicial process, Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right group Oath Keepers, was sentenced to 18 years in prison in May last year.
While not directly related to the attack, Trump himself is blamed for attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election in both Washington and the state of Georgia. The former president pleaded not guilty in these two cases and others. Criminal cases were filed against him in New York and Miami.