The former leader of the Proud Boys has asked President-elect Donald Trump for a pardon.
Henry “Enrique” Tarrio once served as the national chairman of the far-right group, which federal prosecutors said played a “central role” in the breach of the Capitol building four years ago.
More than a year after he was sentenced to 22 years in prison and 36 months behind bars for his role in the Capitol riot, Tarrio has asked to be pardoned by Trump, according to a letter obtained by ABC News.
The 42-year-old “was portrayed throughout the Government’s case as a right-wing extremist that promoted a neo-fascist militant organization. Henry is nothing more than a proud American that believes in true conservative values,” his lawyer, Nayib Hassan wrote on Monday, which marked the four-year anniversary of the Capitol attack.
Tarrio was arrested on January 4, 2021. A warrant was issued for his arrest after he admitted to burning a Black Lives Matter flag outside a historically Black church in D.C. in December 2020.
A judge then ordered him to leave the D.C. area and “not partake in the rally that took place” two days later, the attorney wrote. Tarrio complied with the court orders, the lawyer said. He left the D.C. area and moved to Baltimore, but still, the government pursued his client.
“Nonetheless, the Government pushed forward charging and prosecuting Henry, along with four individuals in the same trial, for expressing their freedom of expression,” Hassan said, adding that the court imposed “the largest sentence of any January 6 defendant.”
For “most” of his time in custody, Tarrio has been living in a special housing unit, during which he can see outside of his cell for just one hour each day. The rest of the time, he’s kept in seclusion, the lawyer wrote.
“No individual should be housed for this extended time as it is cruel and an unusual punishment and can lead to major mental health concerns,” Hassan argued.
Granting the pardon would allow Tarrio to “reintegrate” into his “extremely supportive” family and help him contribute “meaningfully” to the community, the letter said. Hassan said his client has “an aspiring future ahead of him” and had previously been running two “successful businesses” before he was incarcerated.
A jury found Tarrio and three co-defendants guilty of seditious conspiracy and other charges related to the Capitol attack.
Tarrio showed remorse during his sentencing hearing in September 2023. He called the Capitol attack a “national embarrassment” and said he would “have to live with that shame for the rest of my life.”
But during the trial’s closing arguments, Hassan placed the blame on Trump: “It was Donald Trump’s words. It was his motivation…It was not Enrique Tarrio. They want to use Enrique Tarrio as a scapegoat for Donald J Trump and those in power.”
Now, he’s asking the same man for clemency for his client.
Tarrio isn’t the only member of the neo-fascist group to ask for a pardon.
Joseph Biggs, another leader of the Proud Boys, asked to be granted clemency in November shortly after Trump was re-elected. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison and 36 months of supervised release after a jury convicted him of seditious conspiracy and other crimes.
“These are divisive times,” his attorney wrote. “The divisions were acute in 2020, when millions believed the election was stolen and turned out to make sure electoral integrity was preserved. Suspicions and bitterness about the election lingers to this day.” The lawyer added: “A pardon of Mr. Biggs will help close that wound and inspires confidence in the future.”
Trump has left open the possibility of pardoning some January 6-related defendants — or as he calls them, “unbelievable patriots” and “hostages.”
In an interview with Meet the Press last month, the president-elect said he would “most likely” pardon them: “Most likely, I’ll do it very quickly.”
In the nearly four years that followed, 1,561 individuals have been criminally charged in connection to the attack.
