Proud Boys Leader Enrique Tarrio Gets 22 Years in Prison For Role In Jan. 6 Capitol Riots

Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, the one-time chairman of the white nationalist group Proud Boys, has been sentenced to 22 years in prison. According to CBS News, his sentence marks the longest handed down in the Justice Department’s investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot. Tarrio has been in jail ever since he was arrested in 2022, and in May 2023, he was found guilty of multiple charges, including seditious conspiracy. Prosecutors described Tarrio as a “primary organizer” of the Jan. 6 riots.

Prosecutors described Tarrio as a “general rather than a soldier” and said he used his considerable influence to “condone and promote violence in others.” According to the evidence presented at his trial, Tarrio started posting messages on social media and in message forums about a possible “civil war” and later posted messages reading “No Trump….No peace, no quarter.” As Jan. 6 approached, he escalated his messaging, calling for “revolt.” Tarrio’s co-defendants, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola, all met up with other members of their group on Jan. 6, marched toward the Capitol, and eventually forced their way into the building where Congress was in the process of certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory over Trump.

Evidence presented at the trial established that Tarrio posted on social media while the riot was going on, “Make no mistake, we did this.”

Prosecutor Conor Mulroe said in court on Sept. 5, “Enrique Tarrio was the leader of this conspiracy. He was on a tier of his own.”

Mulroe expounded, “The defendant and his co-conspirators targeted our entire system of government.”

Mulroe also described what could have happened were the rioters successful at staging their attack, telling the court: “They came so close to succeeding. There was a very real possibility that we were going to wake up on Jan. 7 in a full-blown constitutional crisis with the federal government in complete chaos.”

Tarrio requested leniency from the court, and his representation tried to argue that Tarrio was not as much at fault as then-President Donald Trump was.

However, Judge Timothy Kelly was not having any of it, informing Tarrio and his defense that the jury already convicted him of conspiracy before telling them, “His (Tarrio) not being present did serve some strategic purposes,” Kelly explained. “It did allow his lieutenants to rile up the crowd that day, and it did, from his perspective, insulate him…and distance himself from what in fact unfolded that day, and that is useful to someone as smart as Mr. Tarrio. I don’t have any indication that he is remorseful for the actual things that he was convicted of.”