Proud Boys leader, awaiting Jan. 6 sedition verdict, assails Justice Department

Enrique Tarrio’s attorneys used their closing arguments in court Tuesday morning to lay blame for the Jan. 6 Capitol attack at the feet of Donald Trump. | Allison Dinner/AP PhotoFormer Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio — awaiting a verdict on charges he conspired to violently prevent Joe Biden’s presidency — lashed out at the Justice Department and Democrats on Tuesday, accusing them of “weaponizing” government institutions and seeking to “manipulate the 2024 election.

“I’m the next stepping stone,” Tarrio said in the call, which was broadcast to a freewheeling Twitter Space organized by the Gateway Pundit, a far-right media outlet known for promoting conspiracy theories about Jan. 6 and the government. Tarrio also used the call to praise congressional Republicans — including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan by name — for pursuing investigations about the “weaponization” of government. He said Jordan should call some Jan. 6 defendants to testify about their experiences.

Prosecutors have charged Tarrio and four allies with acting as the “tip of the spear” of the mob that overran the Capitol, assembling a group of hundreds of Proud Boys to form a “fighting force” on Jan. 6. Those men surged across police barricades and stoked the crowd’s anger at decisive moments in the melee. One of them — Dominic Pezzola — ignited the breach of the Capitol itself when he smashed a Senate window with a riot shield.

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