Proud Boys leader Tarrio has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for storming the US Capitol

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“That day broke with our previously unbroken tradition of peaceful transfer of power,” Judge Timothy Kelly said Tuesday during the nearly four-hour sentencing hearing in Washington. He sentenced Enrique Tarrio to 22 years in prison. It is the largest sentence to date in connection with the storming of the Capitol.

On January 6, 2021, approximately 200 members of the Proud Boys were involved in the violent storming of the US Capitol by radical supporters of President Donald Trump’s impeachment. The attackers wanted to prevent Congress from finally confirming Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the November 2020 presidential election that day.

Tarrio, 39, and four other members of the Proud Boys were found guilty in May of a “seditious conspiracy”. The remaining four received prison sentences ranging from 10 to 18 years last week. Until then, Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers — another right-wing militia involved in the storming of the US Capitol — had received the maximum sentence of 18 years in prison.

33 arrests had been made

The prosecution had demanded 33 years in prison against Tarrio. Although he was not in Washington on January 6, 2021, he has been accused by members of the Proud Boys of leading the attack on the Capitol. Judge Kelly justified the stiff sentence against Tarrio by saying he was the “supreme leader of the conspiracy”.

The judge was not impressed by the remorse the defendant expressed in court. In a partly tearful voice, Tarrio described January 6, 2021 as a “terrible day” and begged the judge for mercy.

Prosecutors said that while Tarrio was not in Washington in person on January 6, 2021, he “has done far more damage than he could have done as an individual instigator.” Tarrio acted more “like a general than a soldier,” they said. “The only reason Tarrio didn’t march alongside the others was because he was arrested upon arrival in Washington DC.”

He burned the BLM flag

Tarrio was arrested two days before the Capitol storm for burning a Black Lives Matter flag. The supporter of then-President Donald Trump was initially released on condition that he stay away from Washington.

After the 2020 presidential election, Trump refused to admit defeat to Biden and made allegations of voter fraud that have been refuted many times. At noon on January 6, 2021, the Republican called on his supporters to march to the Capitol and “fight hell or hell.” The ensuing attack on the Capitol, which left five dead, caused horror around the world and is considered a black day in the history of American democracy.

Trump was indicted by the federal judiciary in early August for attempting to retroactively reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election in order to stay in power. He is due to appear in court in March on charges of electoral conspiracy. In another trial against Trump and 18 other co-defendants for alleged election interference in the state of Georgia, no date has yet been set for the start of the trial.

(AFP)

Source: Blick