NEWS
Proud Boys Leader Enrique Tarrio Sentenced to 22 Years in Prison
Courtesy of @lanacioncl via Instagram
Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio on Tuesday was sentenced to 22 years in prison after being convicted in May of seditious conspiracy and other charges connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Tarrio, 39, has received the longest sentence yet among those convicted in connection with the Capitol riot, after Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and another former Proud Boys leader, Ethan Nordean, received 18-year sentences.
“Mr. Tarrio was the ultimate leader, the ultimate person who organized, who was motivated by revolutionary zeal,” U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, said during the sentencing.
Tarrio was not actually in Washington, D.C., during the Capitol attack, but was in communication with members at the scene. During his trial, prosecutors argued he developed and implemented a command structure within the Proud Boys leading up to Jan. 6, and dictated members’ actions.
Federal prosecutors were seeking a 33-year sentence. Tarrio pleaded for leniency, swearing he was “not a political zealot” and was done with politics.
“It can’t happen again. It can’t happen again,” Kelly said.
Several other members and top lieutenants of the Proud Boys, a far-right militant organization, have been convicted in connection with the Capitol attack, along with members of other neo-fascist organizations and militias.
Proud Boys lieutenant Joseph Biggs was sentenced to 17 years in prison, local chapter leader Zachary Rehl was sentenced to 15 years, and low-level member Dominic Pezzola was sentenced to only 10 years after being acquitted of the most serious seditious conspiracy charge.
According to prosecutors, Proud Boys Nordean and Biggs led the attack on the Capitol in Tarrio’s absence, with members of the group responsible for pushing through police lines and breaking windows to gain entry into the building.
The attack was part of a plot to keep former President Donald Trump, a Republican, in power after he lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden. The breach of the Capitol temporarily delayed the official certification of the election results as Congress was evacuated.
TMX contributed to this article.
