WASHINGTON — Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio wasn’t even in Washington when members of his extremist group, angry over Donald Trump ‘s election loss, stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Yet federal prosecutors, using his words, won a conviction on the most serious charge levied in the insurrection.
The seditious conspiracy guilty verdicts of Tarrio and three lieutenants handed down Thursday — after a contentious and erratic trial that lasted more than twice as long as expected — bolster the Justice Department’s record in its historic prosecution of the Capitol attack. The investigation has now led to convictions against two top extremist group leaders on a legally complex charge that’s rarely ever brought and can be difficult to prove.
The verdicts could further embolden the Justice Department and special counsel Jack Smith as they dig into efforts by Trump and his allies to undo President Joe Biden’s victory.
Mostly in private, Smith’s work is proceeding apace. Just last week, a federal grand jury — meeting in the same courthouse where the Proud Boys trial was held — heard hours of testimony from former Vice President Mike Pence, who has publicly described a pressure campaign by Trump aimed at getting him to halt Congress’ certification of the election results.
In the Proud Boys case, prosecutors secured a conviction by relying on Jan. 6 rhetoric and a legal theory alleging that Tarrio and his lieutenants mobilized a loyal group of foot soldiers — or “tools” — to supply the force necessary to carry out their plot to stop the transfer of power from Trump to Biden on Jan. 20.
Could the Justice Department follow a similar path with Trump? After all, just before the riot erupted he urged his supporters to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell.” The House committee that investigated the insurrection recommended Trump be prosecuted for “assisting and providing aid and comfort to an insurrection.”
“Who inspired them to do that? Who directed them to do that? Who was the person telling his followers to ‘fight like hell’? Of course, that’s former President Trump,” said Jimmy Gurulé, a University of Notre Dame law professor. “He’s not silent. He’s not oblivious to what’s going on. He’s leading the charge. He’s encouraging them to act.”
But some experts say the successful prosecution of the Proud Boys may not make it any easier to bring a case against Trump.
“Tarrio wasn’t there, but he was responsible because he was the one who was an organizer and leader,” said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor now a professor at Loyola Marymount Law School. “People might say ‘Well, wouldn’t that apply to Trump?’ It might,” she said.
“But you have to again have the very direct evidence that Trump calling people to storm the Capitol, he was calling them to violence. And I’m not sure we have the answer to that yet, although I think the special counsel is getting closer, putting people like Mike Pence in the grand jury,” she added.
Attorney General Merrick Garland alluded to the wider investigation after Tarrio’s conviction, declaring, “Our work will continue.”
“Today’s verdict makes clear the Justice Department will do everything in its power to defend the American people and American democracy,” Garland said.
Trump loomed large over the monthslong Proud Boys trial at the U.S. Courthouse in Washington, where the Capitol can be seen in the distance from the windows. Lawyers for one of Tarrio’s co-defendants at one point said they wanted to call the former president to the witness stand, although the idea went nowhere.
Prosecutors argued that the Proud Boys saw themselves as “Trump’s army” and were prepared to do whatever it took to keep their preferred leader in power. Messages displayed throughout the trial showed Tarrio warning that the Proud Boys would become “political prisoners” if Biden were to become president. As the riot proceeded, he gloated about his group’s role, writing in one message, “We did this.”