Enrique Tarrio, the now-former leader of the neo-fascist Proud Boys gang who was convicted on treason-related charges after fuelling a mob that attacked the Capitol, was released from federal prison following Donald Trump’s sweeping pardons for nearly every January 6 defendant.
Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison, was among four members of the group convicted of seditious conspiracy and other crimes following a four-month trial.
Stewart Rhodes — founder of the far-right Oath Keepers anti-government militia who was similarly convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 18 years in prison — was also released from prison after Trump commuted his sentence alongside 13 other associates of the two groups.
More than 1,500 people were criminally charged in connection with a mob’s assault on the Capitol, fuelled by Trump’s bogus narrative that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and stolen from him.
Trump issued “full pardons” for virtually all of them on January 20, and commuted the sentences of 14 convicted members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to time served. Pending cases are being dismissed.
“These are the hostages,” he said as he signed a series of orders from the Oval Office.
“We hope they come out tonight, frankly,” he said. “These people have been destroyed. What they’ve done to these people is outrageous. There’s rarely been anything like in the history of our country.”
President Trump signs executive order pardoning approximately 1,500 people for events that occurred on January 6, 2021, with six commutations. pic.twitter.com/RXK9I1cHsO
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 21, 2025
More than 600 people were charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement agents or officers or obstructing those officers during a civil disorder, including nearly 200 defendants charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer, according to the Department of Justice.
More than 1,000 defendants pleaded guilty. More than 200 people were found guilty at trial — including 10 like Tarrio and Rhodes who were found guilty of seditious conspiracy.
Tarrio — who was not in Washington D.C., on January 6 — was found guilty of organizing and directing a mob towards the Capitol, where Proud Boys members dismantled barricades and broke windows to breach the halls of Congress, then bragged about their actions on social media and in group chat messages that were later shared with jurors.
Trump acommuted the sentences of other Proud Boys members who were on trial with Tarrio — including Ethan Nordean, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison; Joe Biggs, who was was sentenced to 17 years; Zachary Rehl, who was sentenced to 15 years; and Dominic Pezzola, the sole co-defendant among them who was not convicted of seditious conspiracy, who was sentenced to 10 years.
Oath Keepers members who were similarly convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges — including Rhodes— also had their sentences commuted to time served by the president.
Last month, the judge who presided over Rhodes’s trial said a pardon should be “frightening to anyone who cares about democracy in this country.”
Tarrio served as a “naturally charismatic leader, a savvy propagandist, and the celebrity Chairman” of the Proud Boys, wielding his influence over his subordinates and allies to “organize and execute the conspiracy to forcibly stop the peaceful democratic transfer of power” as lawmakers convened to certify election results, according to federal prosecutors.
Tarrio instead used his talents “to inflame and radicalize untold numbers of followers, promoting political violence in general and orchestrating the charged conspiracies in particular,” they argued.
During a televised presidential debate on September, 29, 2020, moderator Chris Wallace repeatedly asked Trump whether he would denounce white supremacism. Trump asked for a name to reference. Joe Biden, standing on the opposite side of the stage, suggested the Proud Boys.
“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” Trump said. “But I’ll tell you what somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing problem.”
Almost immediately, Proud Boys members and their allies celebrated what they heard as a call to action. On Parler, Tarrio wrote: “Standing by, sir.”
On December 12, 2020, Tarrio and members of the Proud Boys and other far-right groups sparked riots in Washington in the wake of Trump’s defeat. Tarrio admitted in comments on Parler and on a Proud Boys-affiliated podcast that he was responsible for burning a church’s sign.
“I was the one that lit it on fire,” he said. “I was the person that went ahead and put the lighter to it and engulfed it in flames, and I am damn proud that I did.”
Tarrio was arrested moments after arriving in Washington from Miami on 4 January, 2021. During his arrest, police found Tarrio was carrying two high-capacity magazines compatible with high-powered rifles. Both were empty.
But in the weeks leading up to his arrival, Tarrio assembled a “Ministry of Self-Defense” with his co-defendants, which became the “primary instrument” through which members of the group prepared for January 6, according to prosecutors.
Members of the group were instructed to conceal and destroy evidence of their conversations and to refuse to cooperate with law enforcement, with warnings of disavowal and retribution if members were exposed.
Days before the attack, Tarrio exchanged messages over a document titled “1776 Returns” that included plans to occupy “crucial buildings” with “as many people as possible,” including the House and Senate. One message told him that “revolution is [sic] important than anything,” to which Tarrio replied: “That’s what every waking moment consists of … I’m not playing games.”
On January 6, Tarrio told followers on social media that day to “do what must be done” and, in a group chat with other Proud Boys members, “do it again.”
“Don’t f****** leave,” he told them.
“Make no mistake,” he wrote in another message. “We did this.”
Rhodes and his allies spent weeks discussing a violent response to the 2020 election on encrypted messaging apps, then organized a weapons and supply cache at a nearby hotel before joining the mob that broke through the Capitol’s doors and windows to storm the halls of Congress, according to prosecutors.
After several members breached the Capitol that day, shouting out “this is our f****** house” and “we took the f****** Capitol” as they joined the mob, Rhodes hailed them as “patriots”. He told an ally that his only regret that day was that the group wasn’t armed.
Days after January 6, Rhodes typed a message intended for then-President Trump, calling on him to “save the republic” or “die in prison.”
That message was ultimately never delivered, but it echoed another message published on the Oath Keepers website weeks earlier, calling on Trump invoke the Insurrection Act and deputize Rhodes and the Oath Keepers to take up arms against the government.
“It’s better to wage it with you as Commander-in-Chief than to have you comply with a fraudulent election, leave office, and leave the White House in the hands of illegitimate usurpers and Chinese puppets,” he wrote at the time.
He followed up with another message demanding that Trump “attack,” “drop the hammer” and deliver a “crushing blow” to his enemies “while they sleep, wrapped in their arrogance.”
Rhodes also instructed his allies to “get gear squared away and ready to fight”, adding that “Trump has one last chance right now to stand but he will need us and our rifles too.”
