Four members of the far-right group Proud Boys, involved in the assault on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, were convicted on Thursday of “sedition”, according to several US media, an extremely rare charge. Their former leader, Enrique Tarrio, is among the four condemned.
They were five members of the group to be tried in a court in Washington for having, with a crowd of supporters of Republican President Donald Trump, sown chaos at the headquarters of Congress, when elected officials certified the election of his Democratic rival Joe Biden at the White House. The jury failed to agree on the “sedition” charge for the fifth defendant, but all five were also found guilty of obstructing the work of Congress.
Since the January 6, 2021 attack, more than 950 supporters of former Republican President Donald Trump have been arrested and charged with causing havoc in the seat of American democracy. After two other trials, concluded in November and January, six members of another far-right militia, the Oath Keepers, had already been convicted of sedition, a leader facing up to 20 years in prison which involves planning the use of force to oppose the government. Difficult to prove, it is very rarely used, and the previous condemnation as such, before those of November and January, dates back almost a quarter of a century.
The trial of the five members of the Proud Boys opened in December in a court in the federal capital. Former Proud Boys “National Chairman” Enrique Tarrio, arrested in Miami in March 2021, was not in Washington on January 6, but was suspected of leading the attack on America’s Temple of Democracy by members of this neofascist organization. Four of his associates were accused of having directly taken part in the assault. In a video of the event, one of them, Dominic Pezzola, can be seen handling a riot shield – stolen from police – and smashing a window in the Capitol.
