Proud Boys were found guilty of seditious conspiracy | Breaking News

In a trial that took place on January 6, four members of the Proud Boys were found guilty of seditious conspiracy.

The jury is still deadlocked on whether or not a fifth member of the group is responsible for the seditious conspiracy, and they will continue to deliberate on the matter.

WASHINGTON — On Thursday, a jury decided that four members of the far-right Proud Boys organization were guilty of seditious conspiracy in connection with the attack on the United States Capitol that took place on January 6.

Each of Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Dominic Pezzola, and Zachary Rehl faced nine counts in the indictment. Under a law that was in effect during the time of the Civil War, all of the defendants, with the exception of Pezzola, were found guilty of the unusual charge of seditious conspiracy. In addition, the jury determined that Tarrio, Biggs, Nordean, and Rehl were guilty of conspiring to hinder an official procedure.

The jury was only able to reach a judgement in part, and they are still divided on the question of whether or not Pezzola is guilty of the accusations of seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct. The United States District Judge Timothy J. Kelly has given the jury the instruction to continue deliberate on the various charges that are still pending.

Pezzola, who was seen breaking through a window with a Capitol Police shield during the breach, and who acknowledged to his behavior on the stand, was separately charged with stealing the police shield, and he was found guilty of that crime on Thursday. Pezzola admitted to his behavior on the testimony.

Pezzola was also found guilty of assaulting, resisting, or impeding specific police, although the other four defendants were found not guilty of this offense. Pezzola was the only defendant found guilty of this crime.

The jury was selected at the commencement of the trial in December 2022, and opening statements were made at the beginning of January 2023. The entire process took place over the course of four months. The Proud Boys trial was the third seditious conspiracy case to go before juries since the attack on the Capitol. Six members of the far-right Oath Keepers group, including founder Stewart Rhodes, were convicted on that charge spanning two trials in November and January. The Proud Boys trial was the third case to go before jurors since the attack on the Capitol.Jeremy Bertino, a high-level member of the Proud Boys who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy in October, testified for the prosecution in this new trial as part of a plea deal. He told the jury that the Proud Boys believed they "had to do anything that was necessary to save the country." This testimony was part of Jeremy Bertino's agreement to cooperate with the prosecution.

The prosecutors contended that the Proud Boys were "thirsting for violence" on January 6 and that they had planned in advance to stop the certification of President Joe Biden's triumph by "any means necessary, including by force." Attorneys for the defense claimed that the Justice Department was making Donald Trump the scapegoat for the real culprit behind the events of January 6 by utilizing the group as a scapegoat.

During the course of the trial, two of the defendants gave testimony: Rehl, who was the leader of the organization's chapter in Philadelphia, and Pezzola, who was a floor installer from New York and was known within the organization as "Spaz." Online sleuths discovered recordings that purported to show Rehl discharging a can of pepper spray toward policemen just before he was scheduled to be cross-examined. Rehl denied having done so throughout the trial and was not charged with assaulting the police officers. Pezzola became agitated while testifying and began to rant about the "fake" charges and the "phony" trial. He also brought up ideas of conspiracies involving another participant from January 6 named Ray Epps.

Given that Tarrio, the former chairman of the Proud Boys, spent January 6 in a hotel in Baltimore after being banned from Washington, D.C. the day before, the most difficult obstacle for the prosecutors to overcome throughout the trial was trying to convince the jury that Tarrio, the former chairman of the Proud Boys, was involved in the conspiracy. Tarrio admitted in encrypted texts that were decrypted during the trial that he had received a message from someone who wanted to "storm the Capitol," but he did not openly approve that plan. Prosecutors appeared to concede that a significant portion of what occurred on January 6 was the result of spontaneous events. They were able to show that Tarrio indicated he wanted a "spectacle" on January 6 and that he applauded the attack on the Capitol after it occurred, attributing credit for the breach to the Proud Boys. This was something that they were able to prove.

Another member of the Proud Boys went to trial while the broader seditious conspiracy case was being heard, and several other members of the group have already admitted guilt for their acts on January 6. In August, Joshua Pruitt, a bartender in the District of Columbia who had joined the Proud Boys and assaulted the Capitol, was given a sentence of 4.5 years in jail for his involvement in the incident. In December, Nicholas Ochs, the founder of the Proud Boys chapter in Hawaii, was given a sentence of four years in jail for his involvement in the organization.

The verdict and sentencing for the defendants in the Proud Boys case will be decided by Kelly, who presided over the trial.