Scapegoats or Trumps army: Proud Boys trial closing arguments | Donald Trump news

[ad_1]

US prosecutors are accusing the leaders of the groups of seditious conspiracy in an alleged plot to prevent a peaceful transition of power.

US prosecutors and defense lawyers for the far-right group Proud Boys have given their closing arguments in a trial aimed at determining whether the group’s leaders committed seditious conspiracy in their alleged plot to attack the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 and disrupt the peaceful transition. of power.

On Tuesday, the defense team alleged that the leaders of the Proud Boys were being used as scapegoats for former President Donald Trump, who excoriated supporters after his 2020 election loss, including telling those gathered at the Capitol who fought like hell during a pre-riot speech.

Then-Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, by contrast, was not in Washington, DC on the date, having been banned from the capital after being arrested on charges he defaced a Black Lives Matter banner, the defense attorney said. which is Nayib Hassan.

These are the words of Donald Trump. This was his motivation. His anger caused what happened on January 6th in your beautiful and wonderful city, Hassan told jurors in Washington, DC federal court. Not Enrique Tarrio. They want to use Enrique Tarrio as a scapegoat for Donald J. Trump and those in power.

The remarks came a day after US prosecutors made their own closing arguments in the case, saying the Proud Boys had a thirst for violence and were organizing for action ahead of the attack on the US Capitol.

These defendants see themselves as Donald Trump’s army, fighting to keep their preferred leader in power regardless of what the law or the courts say about it, prosecutor Conor Mulroe said.

The case represents the first major trial involving leaders of the far-right Proud Boys, a neo-fascist group of self-described Western chauvinists who remain a force in mainstream Republican circles.

Tarrio, a Miami resident, was tried along with Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola, whom prosecutors identified as the group’s top lieutenants.

If convicted of seditious conspiracy, a rarely used charge that can be difficult to prove, the men could face up to 20 years in prison. Jurors may begin deliberating on Tuesday.

Defense attorneys argued that prosecutors had presented no evidence of a conspiracy or a plan for the Proud Boys to attack the Capitol. They sought to portray the far-right group as a club that only engages in violence in self-defense against antifascist activists.

Nicholas Smith, attorney for former Proud Boys chapter leader Nordean, said Monday that prosecutors built their case on misdirection and innuendo.

Meanwhile, the government based its case on a trove of messages exchanged privately by Proud Boys leaders and members in encrypted chats and publicly posted on social media before, during and after the Capitol riots.

Prosecutor Mulroe argued that a conspiracy could be an unspoken and implicit mutual understanding, reached with a wink and a nod.

The trial comes after the US Department of Justice obtained seditious conspiracy convictions against the founder and members of another far-right group, the Oath Keepers.

More than 1,000 people have been charged so far in connection with the attack on the US Capitol.

[ad_2]