Four members of the Proud Boys were found guilty of seditious conspiracy to attack the Capitol

A Washington jury this Thursday found four members guilty of the crime of seditious conspiracy far-right militia Proud Boysincluding their leader Enrique Tarriofor his role in the attacks on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2020.

Besides Tarrio, they were also declared guilty of seditious conspiracy Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl, while Dominic Pezzola got away with the crime, although they all face various charges, including conspiracy to obstruct official proceedings.

This is the third time that the crime of seditious conspiracy has been brought to trial against those who attacked the Capitol, after several members of the Oath Keepers were also found guilty – another of these militias present during the attack – among them their leader Stewart Rhodes.

The trial lasted four months, and the key was the testimony of one of its other members, Jeremy Bertin, who already pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy in October as part of an agreement with the prosecution. “They had to do whatever it took to save the country”he said during one of the hearings reported by Europa Press.

Among the culprits is Enrique Tarrio (38), who has been the leader of Proud Boys for many years. Despite the fact that he was not present during the riots – because he was arrested two days earlier for possession of weapons and destruction of property – prosecutors claim that he created a kind of “Ministry of Self-Defense” to “conspire” and “paralyze” the transfer of presidential power.

The others are Ethan Nordean, one of the leaders of the Washington delegation; Joseph Biggs, military veteran and leader of the Proud Boys of Florida; Zachary Rehl, a former Marine and president of the group in Philadelphia, and Dominic Pezzola, who was caught on camera stealing a police shield that he used to break one of the Capitol windows through which the mob was entering.

The plan they are accused of began with Tarrio’s call for rebellion via social media and the Internet days after his election loss to former President Donald Trump. “If Biden steals this election, we will be political prisoners. We will not leave in silence (…) I promise,” he announced.

Since then, the presence of the Proud Boys in demonstrations that questioned the validity of the election There was more and more, participation in many of them in the violent acts that took place.

Tarrio is known as one of the main ideologues of it Ministry of Self-Defense which consisted of about a hundred men armed to the teeth, who met on the morning of January 6 at the monument to George Washington in order to go to the Capitol together.

While the members of the Proud Boys remained at the forefront of the attack on the overworked Capitol police officers, according to the recordings of that day, some such as e.g. Nordean, Biggs and Rehl took the back seat and let others lead the attack to join them later.