May 4 (UPI) — Four members of the far-right Proud Boys group, including its former leader, have been convicted of multiple felonies for their role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riots that breached the Capitol Building in Washington.
On Thursday, former Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio was convicted of seditious conspiracy and obstructing an official proceeding. He was convicted alongside subordinate group members Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, and Zachary Rehl.
The Washington, D.C., federal jury was unable to return a verdict on the sedition charges against a fifth member, Dominic Pezzola, who also is accused of using a police officer’s riot shield to break a window at the Capitol.
Judge Timothy Kelly told jurors they could return partial verdicts and sent them back into deliberations for the charges against Pezzola, along with additional undecided verdicts for the other defendants.
Prosecutors said Tarrio helped orchestrate the breach even though he wasn’t present at the riot because he had been arrested on separate charges a day prior.
Prosecutor Conor Mulroe told the jury that the defendants “were there to threaten and, if necessary, use force to stop the certification of the election, and that is exactly what they did.”
Tarrio’s lawyer, Nayib Hassan, told the court his client was being used as “a scapegoat” and said, “It was Donald Trump‘s words, it was his motivation, it was his anger that caused what occurred on Jan. 6.”
All five defendants were convicted for obstructing the certification of the 2020 election.
The U.S. government has brought sedition charges against 14 individuals involved in the riots and has obtained convictions in 10 of those cases.
In January, four members of the far-right Oath Keepers organization were convicted of sedition at a U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.