Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio sentenced to 22 years in prison
Former Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio was sentenced Tuesday to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and leading a failed plot to prevent the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden.
The sentence from District Judge Timothy Kelly is the longest given to anyone in relation to the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack.
Tarrio, dressed in an orange jumpsuit and orange slip-on sneakers, leaned against a lectern at the front of the crowded courtroom and hung his head as the judge handed down his lengthy sentence. Three other members of Proud Boys leadership were also found guilty of seditious conspiracy and sentenced last week.
“It is kind of hard to put into words how important the peaceful transfer of power is,” Kelly said. “Our country was founded as an experiment in self-government by the people, but it cannot long endure if the way we elect our leaders is threatened with force and violence.”
“Mr. Tarrio was the ultimate leader, the ultimate person who organized, who was motivated by revolutionary zeal,” Kelly said at the end of the three hour hearing, adding that he has shown “no remorse.”
“What happened that day did not honor the founders, it was the kind of thing they wrote the Constitution to prevent,” the judge said.
Tarrio’s lawyer, Nayib Hassan, told reporters outside of the courthouse that they “respectfully disagree” with the judge’s decision.
“It caught us off guard,” Hassan said, adding: “That’s what the appellate process is for.”
Tarrio had been arrested in Washington, DC, days before the riot for burning a DC church’s Black Lives Matter banner and bringing high-capacity rifle magazines into the district, and was ordered by a judge to leave the city. But Kelly said that while Tarrio may not have been present at the Capitol during the attack, the Proud Boys leader “had an outsized impact on the events of the day. “
While the 22-year sentence is the longest for any January 6 defendant, the Justice Department had sought 33 years in prison for Tarrio.
Kelly had consistently gone far below previous Justice Department sentencing requests for Proud Boys members convicted in this case.
Kelly sentenced Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs, two of the far-right organization’s top lieutenants, to 18- and 17-year prison sentences, respectively. Zachary Rehl, a local Proud Boys chapter leader, was sentenced to 15 years behind bars, while Dominic Pezzola, a low-level member and the only defendant acquitted of the seditious conspiracy charge, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
