Proud Boys’ Enrique Tarrio sentenced to a record 22 years in prison over Jan. 6 conviction
Ashley Oliver
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Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, former national chairman of the Proud Boys, was sentenced Tuesday to 22 years in prison over his role in organizing a large group for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the longest sentence of the hundreds handed out so far in connection with the attack.
Tarrio, who was not physically in Washington on Jan. 6, was convicted of a rare seditious conspiracy charge, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, destruction of government property, and three other related charges.
Tarrio was arrested and ordered to leave Washington a couple of days prior to the riot for burning a Black Lives Matter flag and carrying two large-capacity magazines, according to court filings.
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U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly spoke at length about his considerations in calculating Tarrio’s sentence, emphasizing what he said was the seriousness of seditious conspiracy.
“Mr. Tarrio was the ultimate leader of that conspiracy. I don’t really think this is super debatable,” Kelly said.
Tarrio was “the ultimate person who organized, who was motivated by a revolutionary zeal,” Kelly said, noting the group Tarrio recruited consisted of about 200 people leading breaches that day.
The court filings stated that on Jan. 6, Tarrio shared messages to his tens of thousands of followers on the social media platform Parler that included instructing those at the Capitol not to leave while it was being overtaken and calling them “revolutionaries.” He also shared a photo of lawmakers hiding in the House chamber, and in the days after the riot, he posted messages that included “I’m not denouncing s***” and “f*** the system” in all capital letters.
Tarrio was convicted in May alongside four co-defendants, three of whom were also found guilty of seditious conspiracy.
Kelly handed out hefty sentences to the four others last week spanning 10 to 18 years in prison, a sign that Tarrio’s sentence would be equally as lengthy.
Tarrio had initially been scheduled to receive his sentence last Wednesday, before the rest of the co-defendants, but Kelly canceled all of his hearings last minute that day. He returned to the courthouse the following day and clarified that he had been sick. Tarrio’s sentencing hearing was rescheduled to occur last instead of first.
Similar to his calculations at last week’s hearings, Kelly applied a terrorism adjustment to Tarrio’s sentence because of what he perceived was Tarrio’s shared responsibility for his two co-defendants Joseph Biggs’s and Zachary Rehl’s destruction of a fence that served as a barrier to the Capitol.
Even though Tarrio did not “directly” destroy the fence, “his intent on seditious conspiracy as found by the jury supports the application of this adjustment,” Kelly said.
Tarrio’s attorney Sabino Jauregui argued, “My client is no terrorist. My client is a misguided patriot” who thought “he was saving this country, saving this Republic.”
Jauregui repeatedly observed that Tarrio was not present on Jan. 6.
During Kelly’s closing remarks, the judge said that his absence served “some strategic purposes, did allow his lieutenants to rile up the crowd that day, and it did, from [Tarrio’s] perspective, insulate him in just the way he is arguing now. … That’s useful to someone as smart as Mr. Tarrio.”
Kelly noted that Tarrio had instructed attendees to bring pepper spray and other gear. Sabino countered that the gear was “for Antifa” and not for police officers.
Government prosecutors had sought decadeslong sentences for Tarrio and his co-defendants, but Kelly ruled far lower than their recommendations.
They asked for 33 years for Tarrio, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Conor Mulroe argued during the hearing that Tarrio was “on a tier of his own” and had a prior unrelated conviction from years ago and that the judge needed “to make sure the consequences are abundantly clear” for future elections by sentencing Tarrio more harshly.
Mulroe characterized the riot as a “calculated act of terrorism” and different than “more familiar terrorism offenses that involve extremely lethal means” such as Sept. 11 and the Oklahoma City bombing.
“This crime is different, but that difference does not detract from the gravity of what Mr. Tarrio and his co-defendants did,” Mulroe said, adding that they “came so close to succeeding” in causing a “full-blown constitutional crisis.”
“That is what revolution means and that is what [Tarrio] openly pursued and that is what he very nearly achieved, and it didn’t take rifles and explosives,” Mulroe concluded.
Tarrio, who has been behind bars for the last two years, was wearing his orange prison uniform as he conveyed remorse to the courtroom.
He said he had always held law enforcement in “high regard” and that he “failed miserably.”
“We invoked 1776 and the Constitution of the United States and that was so wrong to do. That was a perversion,” he said.
In a veiled reference to others who had been charged, including one of his co-defendants Dominic Pezzola, Tarrio said that he would not be shouting anything as he left the courtroom. Pezzola last week shouted “Trump won!” minutes after expressing regret to the judge and receiving his sentence.
Tarrio, who is 39, added that his mental health had suffered, pointing to what he described as a life over the last two years either “in transit or solitary confinement.”
“I ask that you not take my 40s from me,” Tarrio said, noting that he had enrolled in classes while imprisoned where possible and that he had plans to get remarried and work in construction in the future. His attorney also requested that Tarrio be considered for programs available through the First Step Act.
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His mother, sister, and fiance also spoke ahead of Kelly giving the sentence, and all welled with emotion and tears as they asked for a lenient sentence from the judge.
Biggs was sentenced to 17 years and Rehl to 15 years. The two others, Dominic Pezzola and Ethan Nordean, were sentenced to 10 and 18 years, respectively.