As members of the Proud Boys extremist group stormed past police lines and swarmed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, their leader cheered them on from afar, prosecutors say. “Do what must be done,” Enrique Tarrio wrote on social media. “So what do we do now?” someone asked later that day in a Proud Boys encrypted group chat. “Do it again,” Tarrio responded. Almost two years later, Tarrio’s words are at the center of the Justice Department’s seditious conspiracy case against the former Proud Boys national chairman. Prosecutors in his trial in Washington are trying to build on their recent courtroom victory against leaders of another far-right extremist group, the Oath Keepers. Tarrio, who led the neofacist group as it became a force in mainstream Republican circles, is perhaps the highest-profile defendant yet to stand trial for charges stemming from the insurrection. Tarrio and four lieutenants face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of seditious conspiracy. Jury selection is underway and opening statements could begin later this week. The trial comes at a pivotal time in the Justice Department’s wide-ranging Jan. 6 investigation. Key aspects are now overseen by special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Smith has issued a number of subpoenas in recent weeks to state election officials, seeking their communications with Donald Trump and others involved the then-president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden. The House committee that investigated the Capitol riot urged the department to bring criminal charges against Trump. While the referrals carry no legal weight, the recommendation could increase public pressure on the department to prosecute Trump, who called on supporters to “fight like hell” before the siege that halted congressional certification of Biden’s victory. The department is buoyed by the recent sedition guilty plea of a close Tarrio associate, who could provide potentially damning testimony under a cooperation deal, and the convictions in November of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and the head of the anti-government group’s Florida chapter. In Tarrio’s case, prosecutors are hoping to convince jurors that they should convict him of overseeing a violent plot to stop the transfer of presidential power even though he was not in Washington on Jan. 6. Tarrio had been arrested in a separate case days earlier. Tarrio’s lawyers say he did not instruct or encourage anyone to go into the Capitol. Their defense may focus on communications they say show Tarrio was informing law enforcement in the run-up to Jan. 6 of the Proud Boys’ plans to protest the results of the election and party that night with — as they wrote in court papers — “plenty of beer and babes.” The trial will put a spotlight on the Proud Boys, which remains an influential force in right-wing circles even with many of its top leaders behind bars. Trump energized the group and elevated its profile when he infamously told the Proud Boys to “ stand back and stand by ” during a 2020 debate with Biden. While there were signs the Oath Keepers were in disarray even before Rhodes’ conviction, the Proud Boys have proved more resilient. Proud Boys members have reveled in street violence since the group’s inception, typically clashing with anti-fascist activists at rallies. Tarrio initially called on members to […]

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