A lawyer for the previous chief of the Proud Boys has requested President-elect Trump to contemplate issuing him a “full and complete” pardon for his function within the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol assault.
Nayib Hassan, who represents Enrique Tarrio, wrote in a Jan. 6 letter to Trump that the ex-Proud Boys nationwide chairman was focused by the Biden administration for his political opinions. Tarrio is at present serving a 22-year sentence after he was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his function in a plot to subvert the 2020 presidential election outcomes by pressure.
“Henry ‘Enrique’ Tarrio was portrayed throughout the Government’s case as a right-wing extremist that promoted a neo-fascist militant organization,” Hassan wrote within the Jan. 6 letter, obtained by The Hill. “Henry is nothing more than a proud American that believes in true conservative values.”
Within the letter, Hassan famous that Tarrio was not on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after being ordered out of town following a earlier arrest for burning a stolen Black Lives Matter banner and accused the federal government of prosecuting Tarrio and 4 different Proud Boys for “expressing their freedom of expression.”
He mentioned Tarrio would honor a pardon with the “respect, gratitude and integrity it deserves.” The letter has already been despatched to folks on Trump’s crew, Hassan mentioned.
Prosecutors mentioned at trial that Tarrio spearheaded the Proud Boys’ efforts to assemble in droves and descend on Washington after Trump despatched a message to his supporters to “be there, will be wild!” Although Tarrio was not on the Capitol that day, a number of of his high lieutenants have been on the entrance of the mob and pushing it ahead.
Three of them — Joe Biggs, Ethan Nordean and Zachary Rehl — have been convicted of seditious conspiracy alongside Tarrio at trial in 2023. A fourth Proud Boy tried in that group, Dominic Pezzola, used a stolen police riot defend to smash open a Capitol window, letting within the first members of the mob; he was acquitted of sedition, however convicted of different critical felonies.
Biggs, a Florida Proud Boy and onetime correspondent for the far-right web site “InfoWars,” beforehand sought a pardon from Trump.
