Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot that resulted in the breach of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. File Photo by Gamal Diab/EPA-EFE
Sept. 5 (UPI) — Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio is due to be sentenced Tuesday for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot that resulted in the breach of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington.
Tarrio’s sentencing comes not long after multiple members of the far-right group Proud Boys recently were sentenced for their efforts in the insurrection.
In August, Judge Timothy Kelly sentenced Proud Boys members Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl to 17 and 15 years in prison respectively.
On Friday, Kelly sentenced Dominic Pezzola and Ethan Nordean of the Proud Boys to 10 and 18 years respectively. Nordean’s 18-year sentence is tied with Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes’ 18-year sentence for the longest handed down to a Jan. 6 rioter.
According to prosecutors, though Tarrio was not in Washington the day of the riot, he helped organize the command structure of the organization and was communicating with fellow Proud Boys members at during the riot.
Prosecutors are asking for a 33-year sentence for Tarrio, the longest they have requested for any of the Jan. 6 defendants.
In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors accused Tarrio and his associates of trying to overturn the democratic process.
“They unleashed a force on the Capitol that was calculated to exert their political will on elected officials by force and to undo the results of a democratic election. The foot soldiers of the right aimed to keep their leader in power. They failed,” prosecutors wrote.
Kelly sentenced previous Proud Boys defendants to terms lower than the sentencing guidelines, justifying his choice by pointing out that previous convictions for seditious conspiracy had usually involved loss of life.