Proud Boys Leader In Prison Asks Trump For Pardon

LOADING ERROR LOADING Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 22 years in prison, has requested a full and complete pardon from President-elect Donald Trump on the fourth anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol that he had a hand in orchestrating. Nayib Hassan, Tarrio’s lawyer, wrote Monday in a letter to Trump that the former leader of the extremist group is a “young man with an aspiring future ahead of him,” and argued that Tarrio was “portrayed throughout the government’s case as a right-wing extremist that promoted a neo-fascist militant organization.” Hassan wrote that because Tarrio was arrested on Jan. 4, 2021, for unrelated charges, and was ordered out of Washington, D.C., he did not “partake in the rally that took place on January 6, 2021.” Hassan also lamented that his client has been placed in a special housing unit in prison where he can “only see the outside of his cell for one hour a day,” and argued that this is a “cruel and an unusual punishment” that has negatively affected Tarrio’s mental health. “We did this.” Tarrio also posted messages on the social media site Parler, writing “Don’t fucking leave,” “Proud of my boys” and “1776.” In an encrypted and exclusive Proud Boys group text channel created by Tarrio, known as the “Ministry of Self Defense,” he gushed on Jan. 6: “Proud of y’all.” Hours after the havoc and bloodshed had finally ended, Tarrio posted a video of himself online. Last January, when Proud Boy Marc Bru was sentenced to six years in prison for obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder and more, he told the judge: “You could give me 100 years and I would still do it all over again.” Dominic Pezzola, a Proud Boy charged alongside Tarrio and considered the “tip of the spear” that first led rioters into the Capitol, was tearful at his sentencing, proclaiming there was “no place in my future for groups or politics whatsoever.” Literal minutes later, before he exited the courtroom to be led off to prison, Pezzola pumped his fist in the air and shouted: “Trump won!” According to the Justice Department, as of Monday, approximately 1,583 defendants have been charged with federal crimes connected to Jan. 6, including 608 charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers and 174 charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon.