Prosecutor: Proud Boys attacked ‘heart’ of democracy on 1/6

Washington: Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants led a coordinated attack on “the heart of our democracy” in a desperate attempt to keep Donald Trump in the White House, a federal prosecutor said Thursday at the start of their seditious conspiracy trial.

Jurors heard attorneys’ opening statements for the trial more than two years after members of the far-right extremist group joined a pro-Trump mob in storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough said the Proud Boys knew that Trump’s hopes for a second term in office were quickly fading as January 6 approached. So the group leaders assembled a “fighting force” to stop the transfer of presidential power to

Joe Biden, McCullough said. Tarrio saw a Biden presidency as a “threat to the Proud

Boys’ existence,” the prosecutor said. McCullough showed jurors a video clip of

Trump infamously telling the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during his first presidential debate with Biden in 2020, a moment that led to an explosion of interest in the group. “These men did not stand back. They did not stand by. Instead, they mobilized,” the prosecutor said.

Defense attorneys said there is no evidence that the

Proud Boys plotted to attack the

Capitol and stop Congress from certifying

the

Electoral College vote on January 6.

“They’re trying to build this conspiracy that does not exist,” said one of Tarrio’s lawyers, Sabino Jauregui.

Jurors are expected to hear testimony from prosecutors’ first witness on Friday.

The trial comes on the heels of the seditious conspiracy convictions of two leaders of the Oath Keepers, another far-right extremist group.

Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio wears a hat that says The War Boys during a rally in Portland, Ore., on Sept. 26, 2020. The seditious conspiracy trial of Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants is coming at a pivotal time for Justice Department’s investigation and prosecution of the January 6, 2021 insurrection.