I posted an article. Trump did coordinate with PB in an attempted insurrection. Trump is taking down Republicans in the eyes of Independents which hurts prospects in November.whiterock said:no one here has called the Proud Boys tourists being wrongfully prosecuted, except you. They are a small handful of people who tried to usurp/provoke an angry crowd to take mob action to forestall an election.Osodecentx said:It was new in April when I posted it. Everyone on the board doesn't think the Proud Boys planned it. In fact some of our colleagues think they are rowdy tourists who are being mistreated.RMF5630 said:Osodecentx said:
Oops!
Proud Boys leader admits plan to storm Capitol, will testify against others
Charles Donohoe pleaded guilty to conspiracy, acknowledging an attempt to stop congressional confirmation of the electoral college vote
A North Carolina man who was one of the leaders of the far-right Proud Boys as they assaulted the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, pleaded guilty Friday to two felony counts with a minimum sentence of nearly six years in prison, but agreed to cooperate against his co-defendants in hopes of getting a lighter sentence.
Court records filed Friday show he has already provided numerous insights into the group's plans and their intention to disrupt the congressional electoral vote confirmation.
Charles Donohoe, 34, of Kernersville, N.C., admitted to both organizing the pro-Trump attack on Congress and assaulting law enforcement officers. Donohoe is the first charged among six of the Proud Boys' leaders, including longtime chairman Enrique Tarrio, to admit to both organizing an attack on Congress and assaulting law enforcement officers.
Tarrio pleaded not guilty earlier this week to charges of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and six other felonies. He has been ordered held in jail until trial along with six other defendants.
Those other defendants include Donohoe, who has been jailed since March of last year. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting police officers.
In December 2020, according to court documents filed Friday, Tarrio appointed Donohue as one of the members of the "Ministry of Self Defense," a leadership group within the Proud Boys making preparations for Jan. 6.
In a newly filed statement of offense, prosecutors said that "Donohoe understood that the purpose of the rally in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, was to stop the certification of the Electoral College vote." The "MOSD" leadership was broken into a three-person "marketing" council, to recruit more members, and an "operations" group. Donohoe was part of the marketing group, the statement of offense says, and it soon expanded to at least 65 members.
As early as Jan. 4, prosecutors said, "Donohoe was aware that members of MOSD leadership were discussing the possibility of storming the Capitol. Donohoe believed that storming the Capitol would achieve the group's goal of stopping the government from carrying out the transfer of presidential power. Donohoe understood that storming the Capitol would be illegal."
Donohoe hadn't planned to be in D.C. on Jan. 6, the statement of offense says. But after Tarrio was arrested on Jan. 4, 2021, for burning a Black Lives Matter banner stolen from a D.C. church, Donohoe decided to travel to Washington because he "believed that Tarrio's arrest could create a leadership void for the MOSD," according to the filing, which is also signed by Donohoe.
On the morning of Jan. 6, the Proud Boys marched away from the Ellipse before President Donald Trump began his speech, and did not return. Instead, they went to the Capitol shortly after 10 a.m., the statement of offense says, and Donohoe posted that his group numbered "200-300 PBs." Co-defendants Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs mustered the group, the statement says, and "Donohoe understood that Nordean and Biggs were searching for an opportunity to storm the Capitol."
By 1 p.m., the Proud Boys were being instructed in messages to "Push inside!" Donohoe reposted the message to other group leaders. Donohoe admitted throwing two water bottles at police trying to prevent the mob's advance. At 1:37 p.m., Donohoe took a picture of co-defendant Dominic Pezzola holding a riot shield that had been snatched from police.
Donohoe then found another Proud Boy who "initiated an altercation at the front of the crowd," the statement says. "Donohoe pushed forward to advance up the concrete stairs toward the Capitol. The crowd overwhelmed law enforcement who were attempting to stop their advance." About 140 police officers were injured during the onslaught, and five people died in the attack or immediate aftermath.
Donohoe is the second Proud Boy to agree to testify against his co-defendants. In January, Matthew Greene of Syracuse, N.Y., admitted coordinating with other New York-based members of the extremist group at the front of the Capitol mob and pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy, also hoping for a reduced sentence in exchange for his cooperation. As a result of their deals, no sentencing dates were set for Donohoe or Greene, pending the outcome of their testimony in both trials and grand jury hearings.
What here is new? Everyone knew they planned it. The question. Is what Trump had to do with it or if he knew before Jan 6. As for this guy, wash, rinse, repeat for anyone else that planned to storm the Capital - lock him up he deserves it.
This, however, is new. It happened today
First Proud Boys leader pleads guilty to Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy
Jeremy Bertino was in inner circle of right-wing group led by Henry 'Enrique' Tarrio, accused with some Oath Keepers of planning violence to oppose President Biden's inauguration.
A lieutenant of longtime former Proud Boys chairman Henry "Enrique" Tarrio became the group's first member to plead guilty to seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot on Thursday, deepening the government's case against an organization accused of mobilizing violence to prevent the inauguration of Joe Biden.
Jeremy Bertino, 43, of Belmont, N.C., becomes a potential key witness for the Justice Department against Tarrio and four other Proud Boys leaders, some of whom had ties to influential supporters of President Donald Trump. The five Proud Boys defendants are set to face trial in December on charges including plotting to oppose by force the presidential transition, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol.
At a hearing before U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly in Washington, Bertino pleaded guilty to that count and to one count of illegal possession of firearms as a formerly convicted felon, punishable by 51 to 63 months in prison at sentencing under advisory federal guidelines, prosecutors said.
From December 2020 to January 2021, Bertino "did knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with" the Proud Boys leaders "and other persons known and unknown, to oppose by force the authority of the Government of the United States and to delay by force the execution of the laws governing the transfer of power," the two-page charging document alleges.
In a sign of the sensitivity and potential importance of Bertino's testimony, prosecutors agreed that if he provides "substantial cooperation," they would seek leniency at sentencing and could enter Bertino into a Justice Department witness protection program.
Bertino held a place in the top inner circle of Proud Boys leaders accused of conspiring to impede Congress with angry Trump supporters as lawmakers met to confirm the election results. Bertino's home in North Carolina was searched in March at the same time that Tarrio was arrested on charges that he and at least four others "directed, mobilized and led" a crowd of 200 to 300 supporters onto Capitol grounds. Many in that crowd are accused of leading some of the earliest and most aggressive attacks on police and property.
At the time of the search, Bertino allegedly possessed two pistols, a shotgun, bolt-action rifle and two semiautomatic AR-15 style rifles with scopes. Bertino was convicted in 2004 of first-degree reckless endangerment in New York state, a felony, and sentenced to five years of probation with a period of local jail time, according to court filings.
Error! Filename not specified.
Bertino's testimony could implicate Tarrio, a former aide to GOP strategist Roger Stone, and co-defendant Joe Biggs, a former employee online Infowars show host Alex Jones. Stone and Jones are two prominent right-wing figures who promoted Trump's incendiary and baseless assertions that the election was stolen.
Stone remained in contact with Trump at Mar-a-Lago and in Washington in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack, coordinated post-election protests and privately strategized with figures such as former national security adviser Michael Flynn and 'Stop the Steal' organizer Ali Alexander, The Post has reported.
Stone also communicated via encrypted texts after the 2020 election with Tarrio as well as Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of a second right-wing extremist group, the Oath Keepers, accused of playing an outsized role in planning for and organizing violence at the Capitol. Rhodes was on trial Thursday for seditious conspiracy in the same courthouse where Bertino pleaded.
Bertino also suggested to Tarrio that the election result could be invalidated if lawmakers failed to vote by midnight, an argument that echoed the effort by Trump's own lawyers to deny Biden's victory.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/06/proud-boys-bertino-plea-seditious-conspiracy/
That is a serious problem which should have serious consequences, for them.
But it was neither a serious threat to our democracy, nor an insurrection, and it most certainly was not a massive conspiracy by all or part of a political party to use mob action to overturn an election.
You should realize that your efforts to tie the PB actions to Trump for the purpose of driving latter from the party is, conceptually, not terribly dissimilar to what the PB attempted to do.....laying in wait to seize opportunities to nudge the energy of larger events to accomplish what the group on its own resources could not.
Several on this board have referred to the Jan 6 rioters as "Rowdy Tourists". I'm glad you agree that they were more sinister in their intent and actions.
You should realize that your efforts to diminish the effects of PB on the Republican fringe is a threat to the Party.
I hope PBs are in prison for a while. I hope Trump is out of politics and prison for the good of the country.