J6 pardons immediate fallout

The largest police union in the country - the Fraternal Order of Police, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police both denounced Trump’s pardon of J6 insurrectionists. Their joint statement: “Allowing those convicted of crimes to be released early diminishes accountability and devalues the sacrifices made by courageous law enforcement officers and their families.”

More from the statement: “It sends a dangerous message that the consequences for attacking law enforcement are not severe, potentially emboldening others to commit similar acts of violence.”

Oathkeepers leader Stewart Rhodes walked out of prison and was asked by a reporter what he wanted to see happen next. He said that he wanted the Capitol Police officers prosecuted for supposedly lying on the stand in his trial. He specifically mentioned Harry Dunn.

Former Capitol Police Office Michael Fanone was asked if he had anything to say to Stewart Rhodes on CNN: “This is what I would say to Stewart Rhodes - go fuck yourself. You’re a liar.” Since it was live, CNN apologized for the F word.

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio walked out of prison and immediately called for Merrick Garland and others to be arrested: “We need people like Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, and the rest of the Trump cabinet to right all these wrongs. The people who did this, they need to feel the heat. They need to be put behind bars.”

J6 insurrectionist Vital Gossjankowski also walked out of prison. He tried to attack his judge during the sentencing and had to be tackled and physically restrained by court bailiffs.

  Meidas Touch

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Putting the criminals back on the streets

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 01/21/2025:

A lot of people are outraged.  That and $5.00 will get you a cup of coffee.

Letting them know he'll be there for them when he asks them to do more violence.

Jake Chansley, the far-right conspiracy theorist and Capitol rioter who was pardoned by President Donald Trump on Monday, plans to buy some guns to celebrate.

Chansley, who received one of the longest prison sentences of any Jan 6. rioter, wrote “I got a pardon baby! Thank you President Trump!”, in a post on X.

“Now I am gonna buy some motha f*kin guns!!!” he continued.

  Yahoo

Just hours after taking office, the Republican President made good on his election promise and granted pardons to 1,500 supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, including those charged with trespassing and assaulting police officers.

Mr Trump, who described the rioters as “hostages”, issued “a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offences related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021”

[...]

Trump also ordered that all pending criminal cases against Capitol riot defendants be dropped.

  News.com Australia

But he wants to jail people on the January 6 Committee.

The President also commuted the sentences of 14 members of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers organisations, with their sentences are to be reduced to time served.

I'm not trying not to.  I've been thinking ruefully about them for years. 

UPDATE 09:56 am:

Judge Kelly lowballs DOJ and guidelines on sentencing (yet again)

Enrique Tarrio, the primary leader of the Proud Boys nationally along with Joe Biggs, was sentenced in federal court today by Judge Timothy Kelly to 22 years in prison. He was previously convicted at trial on all counts, including seditious conspiracy. His sentencing guidelines recommendation after enhancements was 27-33 years. The government asked for 33 years and the defense asked for 15.

Judge Kelly was appointed by Donald Trump in 2017.

In addition to Tarrio's direct involvement in the planning for J6, another key piece of evidence that led to his conspiracy charge was a 9-page document that he had in his possession on December 30, 2020, that was broken into 5 parts titled: Infiltrate, Execution, Distract, Occupy, and Sit-In. It also discussed recruiting 50 people for the mission leading up to J6. The document was known as the "Patriot Plan," and included storming and occupying multiple government buildings until their demands were met.

[...]

Tarrio was also mysteriously in the White House on December 14, 2020. When asked what he was doing there, he said he was there for a tour to see the Christmas decorations.

[...]

Another thing that helped convict Tarrio of seditious conspiracy was the parking garage footage of him meeting with Oathkeepers leader Stewart Rhodes on the eve on J6. This showed that Tarrio was directly involved in the planning and was simultaneously helping to coordinate with other groups like the Oathkeepers.

[...]

The main point of emphasis in seeking leniency at his sentencing was the fact that he wasn't actually in DC on J6, and claimed he had no communication with other Proud Boys who were there and he was only a "keyboard ninja."

  Meidas Touch

Part of a conspiracy. Doesn't matter if you were there or not.

In arguing for the 33 year sentence, prosecutors said Tarrio "demonized his perceived adversaries. He glorified the use of force against them. He compared himself to Joseph Goebbels in the use of these techniques." The prosecutor also argued that Tarrio showed no remorse after J6, selling t-shirts that said, 'Enrique Tarrio Did Nothing Wrong' and gave an interview while his jury was deliberating where he said "the Proud Boys did nothing wrong" on J6.

The government also argued that Tarrio should receive a harsher sentence than Joe Biggs because Biggs had previously served his country in the military, while Tarrio had no record of public service.

[...]

Tarrio said that many of the Proud Boys will no longer speak with him after they learned he had previously served as an informant for the police. He also said that he didn't go to try and overturn the results of the election, he was just there to support Trump.

Then, perhaps taking a shot at co-defendant Joe Biggs who yelled 'Trump Won!' leaving the courtroom, Tarrio said, "I want nothing to do with politics anymore. When I walk out this door, I won't be saying anything." He concluded his statement by pleading with the judge, "Do not take my 40s away from me." (Tarrio is 39)

In pronouncing sentence, Trump-appointed Judge Kelly said, "That day broke our previously unbroken tradition of the peaceful transfer of power, which is truly among the most precious things that we had as Americans. That previously unbroken string is now broken, and it's going to take time and effort to fix it."

[...]

Kelly went on to say that Tarrio's social media posts in the weeks and months after J6 showed he had no real remorse.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 09:20 am:

Seditious conspiracy convictions

Trump and his minions may think the January 6 insurrectionists are patriots, but a jury has convicted four Proud Boys of the serious crime of seditious conspiracy.

Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the right-wing extremist Proud Boys group, has been convicted of seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Three of his co-defendants, including top lieutenants of the group, were also convicted, while one defendant was acquitted of the charge.

[...]

In a partial verdict announced Thursday morning, top Proud Boys lieutenants Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs were also convicted of seditious conspiracy, along with up-and-coming Proud Boys member Zachary Rehl, Politico reported. That afternoon, jurors acquitted Dominic Pezzola, a Proud Boys member who was seen on video violently smashing a stolen riot shield into a window of the Capitol building, of the charge.

[...]

Tarrio, Nordean, Biggs, and Rehl were also convicted of conspiracy to obstruct Congress.

[...]

Pezzola was convicted of robbery for stealing a riot shield from a U.S. Capitol Police officer, but all five men were acquitted of assaulting or impeding law enforcement.

  Law & Crime

I bet the Capitol police have a quarrel with that.

The verdict, coming after nearly four months of testimony and six days of jury deliberations, marks a significant win for the government, whose wide-ranging prosecution of Jan. 6 rioters has already resulted in multiple seditious conspiracy convictions, including four guilty pleas and six jury verdicts against leaders and members of the far-right antigovernment Oath Keepers militia group.

One of those guilty pleas came from high-ranking Proud Boys member Jeremy Bertino, who testified for the government at the trial. Bertino told jurors that members of the group had an understanding and an agreement that they would do whatever was necessary to keep Trump in power.

And they'll all be asking for pardons if Trump gets back in the oval.

Opening arguments from prosecutors reminded jurors of Trump’s “stand back and stand by” edict to the Proud Boys — issued during a September 2020 presidential debate — and said that the extremist group was prepared to engage in violence in order disrupt the peaceful transition of presidential power and keep Trump in office.

“These men did not stand back,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough said in opening arguments. “They did not stand by. Instead, they mobilized.”

Well, no. They stood back and stood by until Trump called them to the Capital on January 6, for which he should be on trial, too.

Attorneys for the defendants also argued that Trump — who earlier that day told his supporters at the so-called “Stop the Steal rally” to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell” — was the real culprit.

One of them anyway.

“It was Donald Trump’s words,” said Nayib Hassan, Tarrio’s lawyer, during closing arguments, according to Politico. “It was his motivation. It was his anger that caused what occurred on January 6th."

100%.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 05/05/2023:  This was my reaction to the one not convicted (but I'm not sure I would have voted against it).

Oh, I'm sure he's on Jack Smith's list.

A big ask

“The [Trump] campaign asked us to not wear colors to these events,” Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio told one of his closest deputies in an encrypted Nov. 8, 2020, chat, according to court evidence.

Eight weeks later and days before Jan. 6, 2021, the Proud Boys chairman confided further to multiple girlfriends about members’ preparations for violence and the possibility of storming the Capitol.

  WaPo

I'd say that implicates Trump's campaign in domestic violence nicely.

More than 200 encrypted Telegram chats, texts and other messages show Tarrio appeared at several points to align his plans with those of Trump’s “stop the steal” campaign organizers, while knowing by Jan. 6 that the Proud Boys and the president’s enraged supporters might explode into violence.

[...]

“Whatever happens … make it a spectacle,” the 39-year-old Miami-born Cuban American said in a final text to another lieutenant and co-defendant as police arrested Tarrio on his arrival in D.C. on Jan. 4, government exhibits and testimony show.

[...]

[T]he government has cast Tarrio as a singular figure who holds the key both to what the group planned that day and whether it coordinated with others.

[...]

However, the messages also show that Tarrio and four co-defendants at times voiced doubt and ambivalence over what would actually take place and that plans remained in flux into the last 48 hours. Tarrio was not even in Washington on Jan. 6, having been arrested and barred from the city for burning a stolen Black Lives Matter flag at an earlier pro-Trump rally.

[...]

“I will tell you with almost 100 percent certainty that if I would’ve been on the ground on January 6th, there would be absolutely zero Proud Boys that got arrested,” he said.

But in messages on Dec. 30, 2020, Tarrio’s alleged co-conspirators warned him that Proud Boys as well as Trump’s other supporters could riot in Washington. The next day, Tarrio told chapter leaders that the threat of violence that others associated with the Proud Boys increased their influence and in itself deterred their far-left enemies. He also hinted a bigger scheme could be in play.

“I want them to be fearful,” Tarrio reassured followers, before adding cryptically that deterrence might not be the true goal of the Proud Boys in raising the prospect of violence: “Sometimes we don’t have to lift a finger anymore. Because maybe that isn’t the entire plan.”

“Misinformation is a good tool,” he added.

[...]

Tarrio and co-defendants Joe Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola have pleaded not guilty to a 10-count indictment that charges them with secretly conspiring to disrupt by force the transfer of power to Joe Biden.

Defense attorneys accuse prosecutors of cherry-picking statements from tens of thousands of Proud Boys communications to paint a damning picture, ignoring evidence of disagreement and confusion in the group over any specific plan for Jan. 6. They say Tarrio and his men are scapegoats for an unplanned riot caused by Trump’s incitement and police failures.

Willing scapegoats.

[E]vidence shown at trial reveals Tarrio ties to the Trump campaign. Meanwhile, Proud Boys viewed the group’s fortunes as linked to Trump’s political fate.

[...]

By Dec. 19, 2020, the day Trump called demonstrators to Washington for a “wild” protest on Jan. 6, Tarrio handpicked co-defendants Nordean, Biggs and Rehl to join a leadership group chat for that day’s operations, prosecutors allege. Ironically named by Tarrio the “Ministry of Self-Defense” (MOSD), Tarrio and other members agreed to do whatever it took to stop Congress from confirming the electoral vote in Washington, Proud Boys leader Jeremy Bertino testified this week. Some believed storming the Capitol would accomplish it, the star government witness said.

“I don’t know the exact plan of how it was going to get done. [But] I know what the objective was,” Bertino told jurors.

Tarrio and co-conspirators — who included his best friends and podcast co-hosts Nordean and Biggs — began calling themselves “lords of war” and “soldiers of the right wing” in social media posts, urging others to join in the “revolution.”

[...]

Tarrio and co-conspirators debated as late as Dec. 30, 2020, whether Proud Boys members could attack police.

“We could have a f-----g riot,” Pennsylvania leader John Stewart warned in the MOSD group chat.

“Just let it happen,” Bertino counseled, “Maybe it’s the shot heard round the world and the normies will f--k up the cops.” Both Stewart and Bertino have pleaded guilty in cooperation deals with prosecutors.

On New Year’s Eve, Tarrio posted a proposed packing list of “basic gear,” including military-style body armor and trauma kits, pepper spray, decontamination wipes, programmable radios, brass knuckles, slash resistant gloves, sealed goggles, helmets and gas masks.

[...]

“#F--ktheblue,” Bertino wrote, to which Stewart replied, “Agree, they chose their f-----g side so let’s get this done.”

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Meanwhile in the ongoing insurrection trials

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Proud Boys leader is an FBI snitch

Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys extremist group, has a past as an informer for federal and local law enforcement, repeatedly working undercover for investigators after he was arrested in 2012, according to a former prosecutor and a transcript of a 2014 federal court proceeding obtained by Reuters.

In the Miami hearing, a federal prosecutor, a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and Tarrio’s own lawyer described his undercover work and said he had helped authorities prosecute more than a dozen people in various cases involving drugs, gambling and human smuggling.

Tarrio, in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, denied working undercover or cooperating in cases against others. “I don’t know any of this,’” he said, when asked about the transcript. “I don’t recall any of this.”

  

I don't recall. Sure, it's easy to forget working undercover for the FBI.

In a statement to Reuters, the former federal prosecutor in Tarrio’s case, Vanessa Singh Johannes, confirmed that “he cooperated with local and federal law enforcement, to aid in the prosecution of those running other, separate criminal enterprises, ranging from running marijuana grow houses in Miami to operating pharmaceutical fraud schemes.”

Tarrio, 36, is a high-profile figure who organizes and leads the rightwing Proud Boys in their confrontations with those they believe to be antifa, short for “anti-fascism”, an amorphous and often violent leftist movement. The Proud Boys were involved in the deadly insurrection at the Capitol on 6 January.

Well his proud boy career is over.

Sad! Proud Boys leader might not be available for making trouble in DC

Hours after being sued by a historic black church accusing his group of “terror” and “vandalism,” Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was arrested on Monday for the destruction of a Black Lives Matter sign from an historic church.

[...]

On Dec. 12, hundreds of Proud Boys stormed around Washington, D.C., in protests that devolved into melees with counterprotesters. In addition to four stabbings, where the motives of the suspect were not immediately clear, there was also a reported gunshot during similar protests across the country in Olympia, Washington. The Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church—the spiritual home of many legendary Black figures like Frederick Douglass—called it “no accident” that the Proud Boys visited and damaged its property.

[...]

On Dec. 22, Tarrio remained unrepentant after sharing a graphic mocking the possibility of an FBI investigation into his act as a hate crime.

“I’LL FUCKING DO IT AGAIN,” Tarrio posted.

[...]

Sharing an article headline “Proud boys chairman says he is ‘damn proud’ for burning the Black Lives Matter banner of a historic Black church after Trump march,” Tarrio took a screenshot of coverage of his Asbury United Methodist admission and posted another chest-thumping declaration on Parler: “I’ll say it again… and I’ll say it loud for the people in the back… I’M DAMN PROUD I DID IT!”

  Law and Crime

He'll at least have his pride on the 6th when all the rest of those assholes are in DC.

As Trump embraces desperate last-ditch efforts to stay in power, Proud Boys have answered his call on Twitter to take to the streets on Jan. 6. Tarrio called for “1000 boots on the ground” on that date, saying that the group will go “incognito” rather than wear their “traditional Black and Yellow” colors, according to the complaint.

[...]

Citing a Nov. 20th episode of the group’s show WarBoys, the civil rights group said their ranks also plan to disrupt Biden’s inauguration to Jan. 20.

It would be sad if he had to miss that, too. 

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

The leader of the right-wing Proud Boys group was ordered to leave Washington, DC, on Tuesday until a June court appearance in relation to felony and misdemeanour charges, according to court filings.

[...]

After his arrest, police found “two high capacity .556 caliber firearm magazines” inside Tarrio’s “personal book bag”, according to court filings, leading to two felony charges of Possession of a Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device.

DC Police Officer Ahsan Mufti said in an affidavit the magazines, which were not loaded, were used for 5.56X45mm NATO (.223 Remington) rounds that would fit an AR-15 assault rifle.

During the post-arrest interview, Tarrio allegedly stated that he sells the magazines and “had a customer that bought those two mags, and they got returned ’cause it was a wrong address”.

  alJazeera

Nice try, asshole.

Tarrio, who is of Cuban descent, has previously stated he did not burn the sign out of hate, but “out of love” for the US.

Even better.

Court documents also list social media posts on Parler, a social media platform to which many right-wing activists and politicians have turned after facing what they call censorship from other social media.

One of the Parler posts appears to show Tarrio saying, “Against the wishes of my attorney I am here to admit that I am the person responsible for burning of this sign.”

Why pay an attorney if you're not going to listen to him? Maybe next time, eh?