Former Proud Boys national leader Enrique Tarrio is scheduled to be sentenced for orchestrating the far-right extremist group’s attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Former Proud Boys national leader Enrique Tarrio is set to be sentenced on Wednesday for a failed plot to keep Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 presidential election, capping one of the most significant prosecutions in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Prosecutors are seeking 33 years behind bars for Tarrio, who had already been arrested and ordered to leave Washington, D.C., by the time Proud Boys members joined thousands of Trump supporters in storming the Capitol as lawmakers met to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. But prosecutors say Tarrio organized and led the group’s assault from afar, inspiring followers with his charisma and penchant for propaganda.

Tarrio was a top target in one of the most important Capitol riot cases prosecuted by the Justice Department. He and three lieutenants were convicted in May of charges including seditious conspiracy — a rarely brought Civil War-era offense that the Justice Department levied against members of far-right groups who played a key role in the Jan. 6 attack.

  • 30mag@lemmy.world
    1·
    1 year ago

    For contrast, if a few hundred African Americans with guns stormed the US capital for any reason at all, most would have been shot and the remainder would be facing life imprisonment.

    Is this hypothetical group of people supposed to be in compliance with the laws governing the carry of firearms in Washington D.C.?

    FWIW, 26 armed Black Panthers entered the state capitol of California on May 2, 1967 to protest the passage of the Mulford Act. Five were charged with disrupting a legislative session, a misdemeanor. No shots were fired. YMMV.