Proud Boys lawyers seek to subpoena Trump in Jan. 6 trial
Brady Knox
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The lawyers for five members of the Proud Boys are seeking to subpoena former President Donald Trump in their Jan. 6 sedition trials.
The group includes the former leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, along with Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, Dominic Pezzola, and Joseph Biggs, the New York Times reported. They are seeking to make Trump testify as a witness, which lawyers hope will convince the jury that their clients were only following Trump’s orders to attack the Capitol building on Jan. 6.
The effort is seen as a long shot and unlikely to succeed. If Judge Timothy Kelly does end up subpoenaing the former president, Trump is likely to make every effort to avoid being placed on the witness stand.
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The strategy of Jan. 6 defendants using Trump as a witness is not unprecedented; the plan has been floated several times before, but it has not been pursued. The closest case was that of Dustin Thompson, who also sought to subpoena Trump.
“It is anticipated that, when called as a witness, Donald J. Trump will testify that he and others orchestrated a carefully crafted plot to call into question the integrity of the 2020 presidential election and the validity of President Biden’s victory,” Thompson’s lawyer, Samuel Shamansky, said at the time, echoing the strategy of the Proud Boy defendants.
The subpoena did not go through.
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The trial of the five Proud Boys has been delayed numerous times over squabbling over what can be used as evidence. The Proud Boys became the focus of national attention over their involvement in the Jan. 6 riot.
Tarrio, the leader at the time of the riot, has since been exposed as a “prolific” federal informant.