Proud Boys member pleads guilty to Jan. 6 conspiracy

WASHINGTON — A North Carolina man on Friday became the second member of the extremist group Proud Boys to plead guilty to conspiring to stop Congress from formally certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

Charles Donohoe, 34, pleaded guilty during an appearance in federal court in Washington to charges of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting or impeding federal officers.

His plea agreement includes a provision to cooperate in the ongoing Justice Department cases against other Proud Boys members.

Federal sentencing guidelines call for a prison term of about six to seven years. The terms of Donohoe’s sentence will be up to a federal judge.

The indictment against Donohoe and other members of extremist groups, such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, have been a focus of the Justice Department’s sprawling investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

Donohoe, who had been president of a Proud Boys chapter in North Carolina, has close ties to the group’s leader, Enrique Tarrio.

More than three dozen people charged in the Capitol siege have been identified by federal authorities as Proud Boys leaders, members or associates.

Tarrio this week pleaded not guilty to charges that he remotely led a plot to stop Congress’ certification of Biden’s 2020 victory in the presidential election.

Though he wasn’t at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot, Tarrio organized encrypted chats with Proud Boys members in the weeks before the attack, had a 42second phone call with a member of the group who was in the Capitol during the insurrection and took credit for the chaos there, prosecutors say.

A New York man, Matthew Greene, in December became the first Proud Boys member to plead guilty to conspiracy. He agreed to cooperate with authorities as part of a plea agreement.

On the morning of Jan. 6, Proud Boys members met at the Washington Monument and marched to the Capitol before then-President Trump finished addressing thousands of supporters near the White House.

Around two hours later, just before Congress convened a joint session to certify the election results, a group of Proud Boys followed a crowd that breached barriers at a pedestrian entrance to the Capitol grounds, according to one of the indictments. Several Proud Boys entered the Capitol itself after the mob smashed windows and forced open doors, the indictment says.

Since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 775 people have been arrested in nearly 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, officials said.