Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced on Tuesday to 22 years in prison for orchestrating a failed plot to keep former US president Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 election, capping the case with the stiffest punishment that has been handed down yet for the US Capitol attack.
Tarrio, 39, pleaded for leniency before the judge imposed the prison term topping the 18-year sentences given to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and one-time Proud Boys leader Ethan Nordean for seditious conspiracy and other convictions stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.
Tarrio, who led the neofascist group as it became a force in mainstream Republican circles, lowered his head after the sentence was imposed, then squared his shoulders. He raised his hand and made a “V” gesture with his fingers as he was led out of the courtroom in orange jail garb.
Photo: AFP
His sentencing came as the US Department of Justice prepares to put Trump on trial at the same courthouse in Washington on charges that the then-president illegally schemed to cling to power that he knew had been stripped away by voters.
Rising to speak before the sentence was handed down, Tarrio called Jan. 6, 2020, a “national embarrassment,” and apologized to the police officers who defended the Capitol and the lawmakers who fled in fear.
His voice cracked as he said he let down his family and vowed that he is done with politics.
“I am not a political zealot. Inflicting harm or changing the results of the election was not my goal,” Tarrio said.
“Please show me mercy,” he said. “I ask you that you not take my 40s from me.”
US District Judge Timothy Kelly, who was appointed to the bench by Trump, said that Tarrio was motivated by “revolutionary zeal” to lead the conspiracy that resulted in “200 men, amped up for battle, encircling the Capitol.”
Noting that Tarrio had not previously shown any remorse publicly for his crimes, the judge said that a stiff punishment was necessary to deter future political violence.
“It can’t happen again. It can’t happen again,” the judge repeated.
Tarrio and three lieutenants were convicted in May of seditious conspiracy and other crimes after a months-long trial that served as a vivid reminder of the violent chaos fueled by Trump’s lies about the election that helped inspire right-wing extremists such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.
Prosecutors had sought 33 years behind bars for Tarrio, describing him as the ringleader of a plot to overturn the election victory by US President Joe Biden.
Prosecutor Conor Mulroe told the judge that the Proud Boys came dangerously close to succeeding in their plot — and “it didn’t take rifles or explosives.”
“There was a very real possibility we were going to wake up on Jan. 7 in a full-blown constitutional crisis,” Mulroe said, with “300 million Americans having no idea who the next president would be or how it would be decided.”
Tarrio was not in Washington when Proud Boys members joined thousands of Trump supporters, who smashed windows, beat police officers and poured into the chambers of the US House of Representatives and the US Senate as lawmakers met to certify Biden’s victory.
However, prosecutors say the Miami resident organized and led the Proud Boys’ assault from afar, inspiring followers with his charisma and penchant for propaganda.
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