Sedition dossier: Enrique Tarrio
The Proud Boys leader wasn't actually present when his cohorts besieged the Capitol on Jan. 6, though he played a key role in organizing the attack. He's counting on Trump to lift his 22-year sentence
Donald Trump has been saying he might make exceptions to his plans to pardon the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, notably if they engaged in violence. But one of the key seditionist convicts, Proud Boys boss Enrique Tarrio, will certainly receive a pardon, since he wasn’t present. That’s what his attorney says, at least. And judging from how Trump operates, he’s probably not wrong.
This is mainly because Tarrio had been arrested two days before Jan. 6, upon his arrival in Washington from his Florida home. He was charged with a hate crime for his actions the month before at a Trump rally, and released and ejected from the city on Jan. 5.
So who is Enrique Tarrio? His Cuban-American background showed little involvement in far-right causes prior to 2017. Before that he was mostly a petty criminal and scam artist who sold used diabetes tests, and a longtime FBI informant who narced out fellow crooks. He helped prosecutors put his associates in prison.
And like a lot of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists (including Joe Biggs), Tarrio had an ongoing informant relationship with law enforcement. This is what gave gaslighters like Tucker Carlson the opportunity to claim that Jan. 6 was actually an FBI operation designed to criminalize Republicans. Of course, all of them were supposed to be providing law enforcement inside information about the activities of antifascists, not Proud Boys or Oath Keepers. None of their FBI handlers, records show, had even heard a breath about the plans to attack the Capitol.
Tarrio told interviewers that he joined the Proud Boys just before he attended the United the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA, in August 2017. He was best known for leading the Miami chapter of Latinos for Trump.
I first saw him at the super-violent Patriot Prayer/Proud Boys march on June 30, 2018, in Portland at which Ethan Nordean became famous. You can see him in the middle of the far-right mob in this shot.
Tarrio came to everyone’s attention in November 2018 when Proud Boys founder Gavin abruptly stepped down, replaced by an eight-man “Elders Council” chaired by Tarrio. His ascension was mostly seen as a way to refute critics who called the group white nationalist. A DEI hire, as it was.
In interviews, he quickly demonstrated a gift for utter disingenuousness and outright dishonesty, including his insistence that there was nothing remotely white supremacist about the Proud Boys, their love of “Western Civilization” notwithstanding. He is a gifted liar who could look reporters in the eye and tell them: “We don’t want to silence Antifa or anything. We want them to be able to express themselves.”
(You would have to have not seen the street violence, or heard McInnes rant at length about “our war with Antifa,” or ignored the shirts worn by Proud Boys while violently attacking antifascists, to have believed a word of this. A lot of media folks swallowed it whole, though.)
Tarrio showed up again in Portland in August 2019 alongside Joe Gibbs at the “End Domestic Terrorism” rally. He also led a number of anti-lockdown rallies, particularly in Florida, in the spring and summer of 2020. When announcing three “ReOpen Florida” rallies, Tarrio wrote, “This is where the battle for the 2020 election starts.”
At one point in 2020, Tarrio announced he was running as Republican for Congress. However, he did not raise much in the way of funds and wound up dropping out before the primary.
When Trump infamously endorsed the group—saying, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by” during his debate with Joe Biden—Tarrio exulted in the results, especially the surge in recruitment that followed. “Standing by, sir,” he posted on Parler. “Trump basically said go fuck them up,” said Biggs.
Thus, when Trump in fact lost the election, the Proud Boys became leading participants in the multiple “Stop the Steal” rallies that erupted not-so-spontaneously afterward. Their presence was particularly notable in the first such rally held in D.C. on Nov. 14.
The next such rally was planned for Dec. 12. The night before, Proud Boys showed up in large numbers on the streets of D.C. Trump adviser/ratfucking operator Roger Stone, who had become pals with Tarrio, showed up and helped rally the troops the night before with Tarrio and Ethan Nordean.
Then, after spending the day terrorizing D.C. residents both on the Mall and downtown, Proud Boys finished the night off by attacking and vandalizing two African American churches. They tore down their Black Lives Matter banners and set them afire. In videos, Tarrio can be seen helping lead the arsonists.
Afterwards, he boasted: "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," he wrote on Parler. “The burning of this banner wasn’t about race religion or political ideology it was about a racist movement that has terrorized the citizens of this country. I will not standby and watch them burn another city.”
Encouraged by the events of Dec. 12, Trump resolved to hold a massive “Stop the Steal” protest on the same day Congress was scheduled to certify the Electoral College ballots and seal the outcome. He tweeted out a call to the troops.
It had an electrifying effect:
Extremist groups almost immediately celebrated Mr. Trump’s Twitter message, which they widely interpreted as an invitation to descend on the city in force. Responding to the president’s words, the groups sprang into action, court filings and interviews by the House committee show: Extremists began to set up encrypted communications channels, acquire protective gear and, in one case, prepare heavily armed “quick reaction forces” to be staged outside Washington.
They also began to whip up their members with a drumbeat of bellicose language, with their private messaging channels increasingly characterized by what one called an “apocalyptic tone.” Directly after Mr. Trump’s tweet was posted, the Capitol Police began to see a spike in right-wing threats against members of Congress.
At least one member of the Oath Keepers—the leaders of the group’s Florida chapter, Kelly Meggs—boasted the next day:
Well we are ready for the rioters, this week I organized an alliance between Oath Keepers, Florida 3%ers, and Proud Boys. We have decided to work together to shut this shit down
Meggs posted another message three days later referencing Trump’s Dec. 19 tweet. Meggs wrote: “He wants us to make it WILD that's what he's saying. He called us all to the Capitol and wants us to make it wild!!! Sir Yes Sir!!! Gentlemen we are heading to DC pack your shit!!"
A few days later, on Dec. 26, Meggs messaged his cohorts that they were targeting Jan. 6 for an “insurrection”: “Trumps staying in, he’s Gonna use the emergency broadcast system on cell phones to broadcast to the American people. Then he will claim the insurrection act.”
“That’s awesome,” someone replied. “Any idea when?”
“Next week,” Meggs answered, adding: “Then wait for the 6th when we are all in DC to insurrection.”
Tarrio, posting on Parler, called on his cohorts to “turn out in record numbers” in D.C., but this time “with a twist”: “We will not be wearing our traditional Black and Yellow. We will be incognito and we will be spread across downtown DC in smaller teams.”
After being arrested upon arrival on Jan. 4, Tarrio had a brief court hearing where he was told to leave the city. But as he was departing, he still managed to get in a brief surreptitious chat with Stewart Rhodes in the garage beneath the Willard Hotel.
Proud Boys clearly had mapped out plans to invade the Capitol. The morning of Jan. 6, as they gathered to march, Dan “Milkshake” Scott of Arlington, WA, can be heard shouting: “Let’s take the fucking Capitol!” Others admonish him: “Let’s not fucking yell that!”
Afterwards, Tarrio was unapologetic, once again, about the role played by the Proud Boys in the invasion and desecration of the Capitol. On a livestream with Biggs, he insisted: “The Proud Boys planned this.” He refused to apologize: “They told me to denounce this. Listen, I’m not going to denounce anything.”
In the months immediately after the insurrection, Tarrio continued to organize Proud Boys rallies, following the consensus strategy that had emerged by then—namely, to hunker down and “go local.” Tarrio organized a group to show up at a Miami Cuban-American festival in June.
In the meanwhile, he was convicted for the Dec.12 hate crime and handed a five-month sentence.
Tarrio was not indicted and arrested until March 2022. It took over a year for his trial to wind through the courts and produce a conviction for seditious conspiracy. He was handed a 22-year sentence, one of the longest terms for a convicted insurrectionist.
Of course, Trump knew of Tarrio’s case all along, and with Roger Stone still whispering in his ear, probably had him in mind when he remarked that a number of the Jan. 6 convicts had been “treated very unfairly.” So yes, it’s virtually certain he will pardon Tarrio.