Former Proud Boys national leader Enrique Tarrio is set to be sentenced on Wednesday for a failed plot to keep Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 presidential election, capping one of the most significant prosecutions in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Prosecutors are seeking 33 years behind bars for Tarrio, who had already been arrested and ordered to leave Washington, D.C., by the time Proud Boys members joined thousands of Trump supporters in storming the Capitol as lawmakers met to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. But prosecutors say Tarrio organized and led the group’s assault from afar, inspiring followers with his charisma and penchant for propaganda.

Tarrio was a top target in one of the most important Capitol riot cases prosecuted by the Justice Department. He and three lieutenants were convicted in May of charges including seditious conspiracy — a rarely brought Civil War-era offense that the Justice Department levied against members of far-right groups who played a key role in the Jan. 6 attack.

  • ShittyRedditWasBetter@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m going to get shit for this.

    While I believe that Trump knew exactly what he was saying, and I’m sure there were people who knew what they were doing… The vast majority of those people are just deeply deeply stupid individuals who had no planning whatsoever and got wrapped up with a dumb dumb crowd being riled up by key individuals.

    6 weeks in federal prison in addition to having to keep a job as a federal felon isn’t exactly a slap on the wrist. Most of what I would call organizers are being tried pretty heavily and those cases take longer against better equipped defendants. I don’t think being punitive for the idiots is the best strategy politically either.

    • charliespider@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I agree. The person yelling “FIRE” in the theater is far more guilty than the idiots stampeding to get out.

      Not only were a lot of these people stupid but a lot were likely YUGE losers who finally felt important for the first time in their lives, after Trump blew all that smoke up their asses about being great Patriots.

      Won’t these people lose gun rights if they are felons? (Not American so not sure)