WASHINGTON, D.C: Enrique Tarrio, a former leader of the Proud Boys, was given a 22-year prison term on Tuesday for planning an attack by his far-right extremist organisation on the US Capitol in an unsuccessful attempt to halt the transfer of presidential authority after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.
The 18-year penalties that Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and former Proud Boys leader Ethan Nordean both received after jurors found them guilty of seditious conspiracy and other counts are now surpassed by Tarrio’s sentence as the longest so far in more than 1,100 Capitol riot cases.
It comes as the Justice Department prepares to put Trump on trial in the same Washington courthouse on charges the then-president illegally planned to cling to power he knew voters had taken away.
The Tarrio case — and hundreds of others like it — serve as a vivid reminder of the violent chaos fueled by Trump’s lies surrounding the election and the extent to which his false claims helped inspire right-wing extremists who eventually stormed the Capitol to thwart a peaceful transfer of presidential power.
Tarrio rose to speak before the sentencing, asking for leniency, describing Jan. 6 as a “national disgrace” and apologizing to police officers who defended the Capitol and lawmakers who fled in fear. His voice broke as he expressed regret for letting his family down and vowed to quit politics.
“I am not a political fanatic. To cause harm or change the results of the election was not my goal,” Tarrio said.
“Please show me mercy,” he said, adding, “I’m asking you not to take away my 40 years.”
Prosecutors sought 33 years behind bars for Tarrio, calling him the leader of a conspiracy to use violence to shatter the cornerstone of American democracy and reverse Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory over Trump, a Republican incumbent.
“We need to make sure the consequences are crystal clear to anyone who might be unhappy with the results of the 2024, 2028, 2032 election or any future election for as long as we can remember this case,” said prosecutor Conor Mulroe. “It was a premeditated act of terrorism.
Tarrio was not in Washington, D.C., when members of the Proud Boys joined thousands of Trump supporters who broke windows, beat up police and stormed the House and Senate as lawmakers met to confirm Biden’s victory. But prosecutors say the 39-year-old Miami resident organized and led the Proud Boys attack from afar, inspiring followers with his charisma and penchant for propaganda.
Tarrio was arrested two days before the riots at the Capitol on charges that he defaced a Black Lives Matter banner during an earlier rally in the nation’s capital, and he complied with a judge’s order to leave the city after his arrest.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump nominee for the Senate, agreed with prosecutors that the Proud Boys’ crimes could be punished as “terrorism” — increasing the recommended sentence under federal guidelines. But he ultimately sentenced the Proud Boys to prison terms shorter than what prosecutors had sought.
The backbone of the government’s case was hundreds of messages exchanged by the Proud Boys in the days before Jan. 6, which prosecutors said showed the extremists viewed themselves as revolutionaries and celebrated the attack on the Capitol that sent lawmakers into hiding.
Tarrio encouraged them online as the Proud Boys surrounded the Capitol, writing, “Do what must be done.” Later that day, someone questioned what they ought to do in a Proud Boys group conversation that was encrypted.
“Make no mistake,” Tarrio wrote in another message. “We did it.
They said that Tarrio was utilised by prosecutors as a convenient fall guy for Trump, who on January 6 appeared at a “Stop the Steal” event close to the White House and exhorted his followers to “fight like hell.”
Tarrio is the final Proud Boys commander to be sentenced after being found guilty of seditious conspiracy.
Tarrio is the last Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy to receive his sentence. Three fellow Proud Boys, who were found guilty by a Washington jury on a rarely used charge of sedition, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 15 to 18 years.
The Justice Department appealed an 18-year prison sentence for Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy in a separate case, as well as sentences for other members of his antigovernment militia that were lighter than prosecutors had. was looking for. Prosecutors had asked for 25 years in prison for Rhodes.
