The most notorious of all Jan. 6 defendants — former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio — has formally asked President-elect Donald Trump to pardon him for his seditious conspiracy conviction related to the attack on the Capitol.
Tarrio was convicted by a jury of helping orchestrate the attack on the Capitol, even though he was banished from the city by prosecutors that day for his role in burning a stolen Black Lives Matter banner. U.S. District Judge Tim Kelly, a Trump appointee, sentenced Tarrio to 22 years in prison, the lengthiest sentence of any Jan. 6 defendant.
Now, Tarrio is asking Trump for a full pardon, claiming he was targeted by the Biden administration for his political views rather than the alleged effort to subvert the 2020 election by force.
Prosecutors laid out their case against Tarrio and other prominent Proud Boys during a four month trial last year. They described him as the driving force behind efforts to assemble hundreds of Proud Boys in Washington in response to Trump’s call for a “wild” protest on Jan. 6, and to point them toward the Capitol as a target.
Many of Tarrio’s top lieutenants in the group were at the front of the mob as it breached police lines and helped drive the riot forward at key moments. Dominic Pezzola, who was convicted alongside Tarrio, became the first rioter to breach the Capitol, using a stolen police riot shield to smash a Senate-wing window. He later came within the eyeline of Senate President Pro tem Chuck Grassley as he was being evacuated.
