WASHINGTON — Five members of the far-right Proud Boys were «thirsty for violence and organizing for action» before the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol, the Justice Department said Monday in closing arguments at his trial for seditious conspiracy.
What happened on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021 was «a national disgrace,» Assistant US Attorney Conor Mulroe told the jury as the three-month trial neared its end. But for the Proud Boys, Jan. 6 «was mission accomplished,» Mulroe said. «They had. They had stopped the certification of the election.»
Five members of the Proud Boys — Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola — face nine charges, including the rarely used charge of seditious conspiracy, a Civil War-era statute that has been used against a small subset of 6 January defendants. Pezzola faces a 10th count, accused of allegedly stealing a police shield that he used to break a Capitol Hill window.
Two Oath Keepers members were convicted of seditious conspiracy in one trial in the fall, and four Oath Keepers were convicted in another trial in January in separate cases on January 6. Some Oath Keepers members have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, as has a Proud Boys member, Jeremy Bertino, who testified in the Proud Boys trial.
Mulroe told the jury that the Proud Boys thought politics «meant actual physical combat, a battle between good and evil in the most literal sense.» Mulroe said. A conspiracy «may be unspoken,» he said, «a mutual understanding reached by a wink and a nod.»
There is no magic date by which jurors have to agree that the conspiracy began, Mulroe argued, telling jurors that the defendants could be guilty of conspiracy even if the agreement did not begin until May 6. January, when «those barricades at Peace Circle have already come down.» ”
Mulroe said they were motivated by their belief that the election had been stolen and their desire to keep President Donald Trump in office.
“People generally don’t commit crimes for no reason,” he said. «Using force against the government is not something any group of people takes lightly.»
Mulroe told jurors that the Proud Boys formed what they called a «Ministry of Self Defense» right after Trump’s December 19, 2020 tweet, in which he asked his supporters to come to Washington, DC, on December 1. from January. 6. The Ministry of Self-Defense was not a «drinking club» or a fraternity of men, Mulroe said, it was «a violent gang that banded together to use force against its enemies.»
Mulroe said the defendants made their intentions known: They were not in Washington on Jan. 6 to watch Trump’s speech or to peacefully protest. They were there to threaten and, if necessary, use force to stop the certification of the election, he said.
Two of the defendants, Rehl and Pezzola, testified in their own defense. Just hours before Rehl was to be questioned last week, detectives posted online video that appeared to show him deploying pepper spray on a police line, video that the FBI had overlooked during a two-year investigation.
During cross-examination, Rehl claimed that he could not «remember» whether he fired pepper spray at the officers on January 6.
Mulroe noted in closing arguments that Rehl’s attorney repeatedly asked Rehl on the stand if he ever used force against the officers and that Rehl said no, never.
«That was false,» Mulroe said. «He did that. He did that, and he lied to you under oath about it.»
The lie «belongs to all of Zachary Rehl’s evasive, aggressive and implausible testimony and tells you how much weight to give everything he told you: zero.»
Pezzola, who called the charges «false» and the trial «bogus» and «corrupt» in his testimony, and raised conspiracy theories about Ray Epps, a man whom the far-right has frequently accused, without evidence, of fan on january 1st. 6 as an undercover government agent, he «was the first» to breach the Capitol using a stolen police shield to break a window, Mulroe said.
“They entered the building like soldiers in a conquered city,” Mulroe said. «They showed complete contempt for the seat of American democracy.»
Defense attorneys began presenting their closing arguments Monday afternoon, and arguments are expected to continue through Tuesday. After the government’s rebuttal, the jury is likely to start deliberating Tuesday or Wednesday night.