. Tarrio was charged with conspiracy and other offenses in connection to the attack on the U.S. Capitol, January 6, 2021.
After a Washington, D.C. grand jury handed down a superseding conviction, he was arrested in Miami. The indictment included five Proud Boys members previously charged with January 6.
Tarrio is not accused of participating in the Capitol rioting. However, the Justice Department claims that he planned the attack in advance and kept in touch with the Proud Boys during the assault on Capitol.
On January 4, 2021, the Proud Boys leader was arrested for unrelated charges. He was released the following day and told to stay out of Washington. According to the indictment, he was accused of defying the order, remaining in the district for some while, leading the Proud Boy’s actions during the Capitol rioting, and bragging about it later in encrypted chat rooms.
The case will be transferred to the capital of the country, where he can ask the judge in charge to reconsider his pretrial detention.
Prosecutors tried to keep Tarrio away from trial by arguing that Tarrio was a danger to the community as well as a threat to justice.
He and the other Proud Boys created what they called a “Ministry of Self Defense”, with Tarrio at its top.
“This group was to create the nucleus leadership in a new Chapter of the Proud Boys Organization, which Tarrio described a ‘national rallies planning’ chapter. Prosecutors stated that the first target of the group was the rally held in D.C. on Jan 6.
The group was accused of using encrypted messaging software to discuss their plans for the rally. The government claimed that one of Tarrio’s MOSD members had posted a message saying, “Time to stack those bodies infront of Capitol Hill.”
Tarrio and Proud Boys members were also accused of conspiring to obstruct the certification for the Electoral College vote on January 6, 2021. Indictment stated that Tarrio was sent a document entitled 1776 RETURNS in December by an unnamed individual, which contained a plan to occupy multiple buildings including congressional chambers.
Tarrio met Stewart Rhodes on January 5, after he was banned from the District of Columbia. A recent government court filing states that a documentary film crew was present with the group in the garage. They picked up audio from an unnamed person discussing the Capitol.
Tarrio told an individual that he had deleted all his messages from his phone prior to his arrest, making it difficult for anyone else to access his phone records.
According to the indictment, 100 Proud Boys assembled at the Washington Monument at 6 AM the next day. According to the indictment, several are accused of having “directed, mobilized and led members of this crowd onto Capitol grounds and into Capitol, leading to destruction of property and assaults on law enforcement.”
Tarrio wrote on social media that same day, “Make No mistake…we did it!” According to charges, he wrote “Proud Of My Boys and My Country” at 2:41 p.m.
Tarrio was allegedly “a cavalier approach to the law that counsels strongly for pretrial detention” according to the detention memo. However, prosecutors claim that he tried to distance from the events that occurred on January 6, following which the attack. He also claimed to law enforcement that the incident would have been peaceful if he had attended.
Tarrio was indicted for conspiracy to obstruct a formal proceeding, obstruction of a formal proceeding, and two counts of each “assaulting or resisting certain officers” and “distruction of government property.”
