5 members of the infamous far-right group which includes their former leader Enrique Tarrio, have been federally indicted with seditious conspiracy for their roles in the Jan. 6 assault.
The Justice department brought aggressive charges against the Proud Boys with allegations of attempting to use force and oppose the transfer of Presidential power during the previous election.
The charges came as a result of an amended indictment that was unsealed in Federal District Court in Washington. They had already been previously charged in an earlier indictment with conspiracy to obstruct the certification of the 2020 Presidential Election. This marks a historical moment for a far-right group to be charged with acts of seditious conspiracy to annual an election. In January, Stewart Rhodes, the leader and founder of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, was arrested and charged along with 10 others with the same crime.
According to CNN reports: Prosecutors revealed Tarrio’s text messages from January 6, where he appears to compare the attack on the US Capitol to “The Winter Palace” – the home of the Russian emperor, which was stormed during the Russian Revolution in 1917. In the texts, Tarrio appears to comment on Congress being evacuated from the chambers, unable to certify the Electoral College vote.
An unnamed person texts Tarrio, “Dude. Did we just influence history?” prompting Tarrio to respond, “Let’s first see how this plays out,” before the Senate resumed certifying the presidential vote. The unnamed person writes back, “They HAVE to certify today! Or it’s invalid.”