WashingtonFormer Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio is requesting a presidential pardon from President-elect Donald Trump. Tarrio is currently serving 22 years in federal prison after being found guilty of seditious conspiracy in connection with the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021.
On the fourth anniversary of the attack on January 6, Tarrio’s attorney, Nayib Hassan, filed a letter to Trump requesting a full and complete presidential pardon. The president-elect has promised to pardon certain rioters after he takes office on January 20.
Hassan claimed that Tarrio, 42, is “nothing more than a proud American that believes in true conservative values.” Tarrio was depicted throughout the Government’s case as a right-wing extremist who supported a neo-fascist militant organization, but Hassan described him in the letter as a young man with an ambitious future ahead of him.
In May 2023, Tarrio was among four members of the far-right Proud Boys group who were convicted of seditious conspiracy. Despite not being in Washington at the time of the attack, he was given the harshest Jan. 6 sentence to date—22 years in jail. In the run-up to January 6, he had been arrested, told to avoid the capital city, and found guilty of coordinating and directing members of the Proud Boys to attack the Capitol.
Following their sentencing, Attorney General Merrick Garland stated that Tarrio and the other Proud Boys were “central to the leadership of the Jan. 6 mob that broke into the Capitol.”
During Tarrio’s trial, Hassan accused Trump of being responsible for the acts of his client and other Proud Boys, telling jurors that Trump had threatened to destroy their nation if his supporters didn’t fight like hell. Additionally, he contended that when Trump told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during a 2020 presidential debate, the group received so much attention that it became challenging to conduct due diligence.
Tarrio was detained in relation to another incident, which was the burning of a Black Lives Matter flag in December 2020, shortly before the attack on January 6. Two weeks ago, the top intelligence officer in the Washington Metropolitan Police Department was found guilty of giving Tarrio information that indicated he had an arrest warrant out in Washington just before to January 6, 2021.
Consequently, Tarrio observed the events on January 6 from a hotel in Baltimore, as Hassan stated throughout the trial.
In relation to the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 1,270 defendants were found guilty and over 1,580 defendants were accused. Trump has not specified the number of offenders or the kind of defendants he intends to pardon. In an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in December, Trump hinted that he would consider pardoning protesters who attacked police.
A request for comment on Tarrio’s pardon request was not immediately answered by Trump’s transition staff.
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