Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio Set To Begin Trial Over Jan. 6 Plot

The trial of a senior figure in the controversial Proud Boys organization is due to begin on Monday, over his alleged role in the January 6 riots that saw protestors storm the Capitol in 2021.

Enrique Tarrio, the 38-year-old former chairman of the white nationalist group, and four other members are accused of orchestrating the plot in a bid to stop outgoing president Donald Trump from transferring power to newly-elected president Joe Biden.

Tarrio, who is from Miami, Florida, is set to appear in federal court in Washington D.C. during the trial, which is expected to last six weeks. Jury selection begins on Monday.

Prosecutors allege Tarrio helped set up a "Ministry of Self-Defense" and swapped hundreds of encrypted texts discussing plans to "storm the Capitol" and start a "revolution," according to an indictment. He faces charges of conspiring to commit sedition and conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding.

The trial is due to unfold at the same time as a House committee meeting on Monday to discuss its final report into the January 6 insurrection, in which multiple people were killed. The committee has been considering allegations that Trump and his top aides may have engaged in criminal behavior in an alleged bid to overturn the 2020 election results.

In Tarrio's case, the jurors must decide whether he and the other four Proud Boys members "intended" to use force during the events of January 6, 2021.

He and his co-defendants—Ethan Nordean, 31, of Auburn, Washington; Joseph Biggs, 38, of Ormond Beach, Florida; Zachary Rehl, 36, of Philadelphia; and Dominic Pezzola, 44, of Rochester, New York—have all pleaded not guilty to charges.

Prosecutor Jason McCullough, speaking last March at Tarrio's detention hearing in Miami, described insurrection as "terrorism," according to reports by the Tampa Bay Times, and added: "This was a crime that was carried out by Mr. Tarrio and his co-conspirators that struck at the heart of our democracy."

But Tarrio's defense attorney, Nayib Hassan, insisted Tarrio was not even at the Capitol on January 6 and did not instruct anyone else to go inside.

Hassan told Newsweek: "Mr. Tarrio is looking forward to the start of the trial. We look forward to making our presentation of the evidence and acquitting Mr. Tarrio of the government's allegations."

Legal experts say that whether Tarrio was at the insurrection or not may be irrelevant. Joseph DeMaria, a defense lawyer who worked in the Justice Department's organized crime task force in Miami, told the Miami Herald: "The problem he has is that while he may not have been present on January 6, if he is in the conspiracy he doesn't need to be present for every act. The indictment reflects his [alleged] agreement to join a conspiracy."

Newsweek has reached out to prosecutor McCullough for comment.

The Proud Boys, who describe themselves as "western chauvinists," were officially designated as a terrorist group by Canadian lawmakers in January 2021, who cited intelligence reports said to prove that they were "white supremacists... [and] a terrorist entity."

Before his arrest, Tarrio had been working in a t-shirt store in Miami, where he reportedly had a federal criminal record. He was imprisoned after pleading guilty to a healthcare fraud in 2013 and was imprisoned again in 2020 after pleading guilty to burning a Black Lives Matter banner and carrying firearm magazines at a Trump rally.

Tarrio's trial this week follows a court case into another far-right militia over its role in the January 6 insurrection. Two senior members of the Oath Keepers — Stewart Rhodes and Kelly Meggs—were found guilty of seditious conspiracy charges last month, the first people to be convicted in connection with the storming of the Capitol.