The messages show Proud Boys celebrating when Trump, a Republican, told the group to "stand back and stand by" during his first debate with Biden, a Democrat. The foundation of the government's case is a trove of messages that Proud Boys leaders and members privately exchanged in encrypted chats - and publicly posted on social media - before, during and after the Jan. Two of the five defendants testified, but Tarrio wasn't one of them. Jurors have heard 50 days of testimony by more than three dozen witnesses since the trial started in January. The Proud Boys also face other serious charges. Seditious conspiracy, a Civil War-era charge that is rare and can be difficult to prove, carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison. But this is the first major trial involving leaders of the far-right Proud Boys, a neofacist group of self-described "Western chauvinists" that remains a force in mainstream Republican circles. The Justice Department has already secured seditious conspiracy convictions against the founder and members of another far-right extremist group, the Oath Keepers. Tarrio wasn't in Washington, D.C., that day but is accused of orchestrating an attack from afar. Tarrio is one of the top targets of the Justice Department's investigation of the riot that erupted at the Capitol. Mulroe said a conspiracy can be an unspoken and implicit "mutual understanding, reached with a wink and a nod." A "plan," he added, isn't the right word for what this case is about. Prosecutors have repeatedly shown jurors a video clip of Trump telling the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by" during his first presidential debate with Joe Biden.ĭefense attorneys have said there is no evidence or a conspiracy or a plan for Proud Boys to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6 to the rhetoric and actions of the former president. The prosecution's words underscore how the Justice Department has worked throughout the trial to link the violence on Jan. "These defendants saw themselves as Donald Trump's army, fighting to keep their preferred leader in power no matter what the law or the courts had to say about it." Proud Boys were "lined up behind Donald Trump and willing to commit violence on his behalf," prosecutor Conor Mulroe told jurors, who heard more than three months of testimony. 6, 2021, when the pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol. They are charged with seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors say was a plot to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's electoral victory on Jan. Jurors began hearing attorneys' closing arguments for the case against former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants. WASHINGTON (AP) - Ready for "all-out war," leaders of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group viewed themselves as foot soldiers fighting for Donald Trump as the former president clung to power after the 2020 election, a prosecutor said Monday at the close of a historic trial over the U.S. By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and LINDSAY WHITEHURST
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