Federal prosecutors: Proud Boys used loyal ‘tools’
Jan. 6 trial strategy argues group’s ‘real men’ were weapons
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors are employing an unusual strategy to prove leaders of the farright Proud Boys extremist group orchestrated a violent plot to keep President Joe Biden out of the White House, even though some of the defendants didn’t carry out the violence themselves.
As they wrap up their seditious conspiracy case, prosecutors are arguing that Proud Boys chief Enrique Tarrio and other leaders of the group hand-picked and mobilized a loyal group of foot soldiers — or “tools” — to supply the force necessary to carry out their plot to stop the transfer of power from former President Donald Trump to Biden after the 2020 election.
These “tools” helped Proud Boys leaders overwhelm police, breach barricades, force the evacuation of the House and Senate chambers, and disrupt the certification of Biden’s victory, prosecutors allege.
Defense attorneys have dismissed the “tools” theory as a novel, flawed concept with no legal foundation. They argue that the Justice Department is trying to unfairly hold their clients responsible for the violent actions of others. Tarrio, for example, wasn’t even in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
The seditious conspiracy trial, which started nearly two months ago, is one of the most serious cases to emerge from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and comes as some conservatives continue to try to downplay the riot and push false narratives about what happened that day. Tarrio, who led the rightwing extremist group as it became a force in mainstream Republican circles, is among the highest-profile defendants to stand trial yet and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Seditious conspiracy — a rarely used charge from the Civil War era — can be difficult to prove, especially when the plot was unsuccessful. And the group leaders on trial aren’t accused of engaging in violence themselves. Tarrio was arrested on separate charges two days before the riot.
Tarrio is on trial with Ethan Nordean of Auburn, Washington, who was a Proud Boys chapter president; Joseph Biggs of Ormond Beach, Florida, a self-described Proud Boys organizer; Zachary Rehl, who led the Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia; and Dominic Pezzola, a Proud Boy member from Rochester, New York.
Their trial could stretch into April. Prosecutors are expected to rest their case as soon as this week. Defense lawyers plan to present at least two weeks of testimony before jurors get the case.
The prosecution’s case hit a snag last week with the revelation that the government accidentally provided defense attorneys with sensitive messages from FBI agents. Testimony was suspended until this week as authorities searched the files for possible classified information.
The Justice Department presented a more conventional theory at the trial last year for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy along with another leader of the antigovernment group.
Oath Keepers members stockpiled guns at a Virginia hotel so they could shuttle them across the Potomac River into Washington if they were needed to support their plot to stop the transfer of power, prosecutors said. The weapons were never deployed.
In this case, prosecutors are trying to show that the Proud Boys used people as their weapons.
“The Oath Keepers had their rifles. The Proud Boys had their ‘real men,’ ” prosecutor Conor Mulroe has said.
Mulroe was referring to text messages that Proud Boys organizer Biggs sent to Tarrio weeks before the attack at the Capitol. In a Dec. 19, 2020, text, Biggs told Tarrio that the Proud Boys have been recruiting “losers who wanna drink.”
“Let’s get radical and get real men,” Biggs added.
Randall Eliason, an adjunct professor at George Washington University Law School and former federal prosecutor, described prosecutors’ tools theory as “unusual but not remarkable.”
“It’s not something that comes up a lot, but there’s nothing controversial about the idea,” he said. “And the word ‘tools’ is kind of the perfect way to describe it. In other words, whether you use a battering ram to break down the door of the Capitol or whether you enlist a bunch of other people to help you break down the door to the Capitol, they’re all tools, right?”
Prosecutors last week publicly identified nearly two dozen Proud Boys members and associates they say served as “tools.” All but one of the 23 people named as “tools” have been publicly and separately charged with Capitol riot-related crimes.
Prosecutors argue the “tools” didn’t have to know the ultimate goal of the Proud Boys’ conspiracy to be part of it. Mulroe compared the concept to human “mules” unwittingly transporting drugs or money.
Norman Pattis, an attorney for Biggs, said comparing Oath Keepers’ guns to Proud Boys followers is a “clumsy analogy.” Pattis also said he doesn’t know of any case in which prosecutors have been allowed to argue that “acts of third parties are the legal responsibility of criminal defendants absent some nexus other than mere proximity and shared political views.”
“There is nothing but rank and dangerous speculation supporting this theory,” he wrote in court papers, urging the judge to “reject such evidence as little more than an effort to make hindsight do the work of proof.”