Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 22 years in prison, has requested a full and complete pardon from President-elect Donald Trump on the fourth anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol that he had a hand in orchestrating.
Nayib Hassan, Tarrio’s lawyer, wrote Monday in a letter to Trump that the former leader of the extremist group is a “young man with an aspiring future ahead of him,” and argued that Tarrio was “portrayed throughout the government’s case as a right-wing extremist that promoted a neo-fascist militant organization.” Hassan wrote that because Tarrio was arrested on Jan. 4, 2021, for unrelated charges, and was ordered out of Washington, D.C., he did not “partake in the rally that took place on January 6, 2021.”
Hassan also lamented that his client has been placed in a special housing unit in prison where he can “only see the outside of his cell for one hour a day,” and argued that this is a “cruel and an unusual punishment” that has negatively affected Tarrio’s mental health.
“Nonetheless, the government pushed forward charging and prosecuting Henry, along with four individuals in the same trial, for expressing their freedom of expression,” the letter states.
Tarrio was convicted in May 2023 for seditious conspiracy and a slew of other charges, including conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent officials from discharging their duties, impeding officers during civil disorder and more. At the months-long trial, prosecutors argued that Tarrio purposefully entered D.C. on Jan. 4 to be arrested for his destruction of a Black Lives Matter banner some three weeks earlier. It was, prosecutors said, a convenient way to establish an alibi for his whereabouts on Jan. 6.
Last month, former D.C. Metropolitan Police Lt. Shane Lamond was convicted of obstructing justice and lying to federal investigators about leaking insider information to Tarrio in the days leading up to the Capitol attack. Through hundreds of text messages, prosecutors showed an intimate relationship between the men, with Lamond calling Tarrio “brother” and alerting the Proud Boys leader that a warrant for his arrest for the destruction of the banner was likely.
Indeed, Tarrio was not at the Capitol as it came under siege. Instead, he was watching the action from a hotel room in Baltimore, busily texting with other Proud Boys and whipping people into a frenzy on social media. Tarrio did not have to be at the site of the riot to sanction what unfolded there, Assistant U.S. Attorney Connor Mulroe argued at trial. Mulroe also reminded jurors that at no point on Jan. 6 did Tarrio tell Proud Boys to stand down or not to be violent.
“Make no mistake,” Tarrio wrote to members of Proud Boys leadership as he watched the chaos. “We did this.”
Tarrio also posted messages on the social media site Parler, writing “Don’t fucking leave,” “Proud of my boys” and “1776.” In an encrypted and exclusive Proud Boys group text channel created by Tarrio, known as the “Ministry of Self Defense,” he gushed on Jan. 6: “Proud of y’all.”
Hours after the havoc and bloodshed had finally ended, Tarrio posted a video of himself online. The clip shows him standing in front of the Capitol with his face partially covered. He shot the video on Jan. 5 and waited until Jan. 6 to post it, with the caption: “Premonition.”
When the riot was over, he expressed no remorse.
“I’m not denouncing shit,” Tarrio said.
Trump has repeatedly said he will pardon Jan. 6 rioters, though he has hedged about whether he intends to issue pardons en masse or if he will review the cases individually.
Many federal judges, congresspeople and legal experts have condemned the idea of blanket pardons for Jan. 6 rioters, and particularly those rioters who were violent and who committed the most serious charge to emerge from all Jan. 6 prosecutions: seditious conspiracy.
Last month, a federal judge who oversaw the seditious conspiracy trial and conviction of Oath Keepers leader Elmer Stewart Rhodes warned that the prospect of total absolution for Rhodes’ actions “is frightening and ought to be frightening to anyone who cares about democracy in this country.”
Rhodes is serving an 18-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy and other charges.
In an interview with The Times published Sunday, Tarrio’s mother, Zuny Tarrio, said she hopes Trump will pardon her son.
“My hope is 100 per cent that my child will be pardoned,” she said. “I believe in Donald Trump’s word — he knows who his supporters were and are.”
Some Jan. 6 rioters have expressed remorse for their actions while being sentenced. Others have pointedly declined to do so.
Last January, when Proud Boy Marc Bru was sentenced to six years in prison for obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder and more, he told the judge: “You could give me 100 years and I would still do it all over again.”
Dominic Pezzola, a Proud Boy charged alongside Tarrio and considered the “tip of the spear” that first led rioters into the Capitol, was tearful at his sentencing, proclaiming there was “no place in my future for groups or politics whatsoever.”
Literal minutes later, before he exited the courtroom to be led off to prison, Pezzola pumped his fist in the air and shouted: “Trump won!”
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According to the Justice Department, as of Monday, approximately 1,583 defendants have been charged with federal crimes connected to Jan. 6, including 608 charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers and 174 charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon.