• About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • EEO PUBLIC FILE REPORT
  • FCC Public File
  • FCC Applications
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
Friday, March 24, 2023
WTMJ
  • Home
  • News
    • Local
    • National
    • Coronavirus
    • Featured Stories
    • Decision Wisconsin
    • Guest Editorials
  • Weather
    • Closings and Delays
    • Flight Status
    • Interactive Radar
    • Watches and Warnings
  • Traffic
    • Construction Updates
  • Sports
    • Green Bay Packers
      • Green & Gold Podcast
    • Milwaukee Brewers
      • Brewers Weekly Podcast
      • Brewers Extra Innings
      • First Pitch
    • Milwaukee Bucks
      • Bucks Talk
      • Bucks Weekly: The Podcast
    • NCAA
    • Extra Points
  • Shows
    • Wisconsin’s Morning News
    • Steve Scaffidi
    • Jeff Wagner
    • Wisconsin’s Afternoon News
      • The Beatles & More! An England Adventure with Sandy Maxx and Journeys Connect
      • Spectacular Scandinavia with John Mercure and Collette
    • WTMJ Nights
    • Wisconsin’s Weekend Morning News
    • WTMJ Conversations
    • Reporter’s Notebook
    • Featured Shows
      • Accunet Mortgage & Realty Show
      • Creative Planning presents, Rethink Your Money with John Hagensen
      • Drake & Associates Retirement Ready Show
      • Every Day Health
      • Fix It Show
      • Hired! The GKB Recruitment Show
      • Money Talk, The Annex Wealth Management Show
  • Podcasts
    • WTMJ Conversations 2023: The Podcast
    • Wisconsin’s Morning News Podcast
    • The Steve Scaffidi Show
    • Jeff Wagner Podcast
    • Wisconsin’s Afternoon News Podcast
    • WTMJ Nights Podcast
    • Wisconsin’s Weekend Morning News Podcast
    • The Truth on WTMJ: The Podcast
    • WTMJ Conversations Podcast
    • Milwaukee Brewers
      • First Pitch
      • Brewers Weekly Podcast
      • Brewers Extra Innings Podcast
    • Milwaukee Bucks
      • Bucks Weekly: The Podcast
      • Bucks Talk: The Podcast
    • Green Bay Packers
      • Green & Gold Podcast
    • Featured Show Podcasts
      • The Fix-It Show Podcast
      • Money Talk, The Annex Wealth Management Show Podcast
      • The Accunet Mortgage and Realty Show Podcast
      • The Fox World Travel Show Podcast
      • Creative Planning presents, Rethink Your Money with John Hagensen
  • Features
    • WTMJ Cares: Polar Plunge with Vitrano for Special Olympics
    • The Beatles & More! An England Adventure with Sandy Maxx and Journeys Connect
    • Spectacular Scandinavia with John Mercure and Collette
    • Wagner’s Home Improvement Showcase
    • 2023 Greater Milwaukee International Car & Truck Show
    • Annex Wealth Management Webinar
    • Every Day Health
    • Sunday Sip
  • Contests
LISTEN LIVE
No Result
View All Result
WTMJ
  • Home
  • News
    • Local
    • National
    • Coronavirus
    • Featured Stories
    • Decision Wisconsin
    • Guest Editorials
  • Weather
    • Closings and Delays
    • Flight Status
    • Interactive Radar
    • Watches and Warnings
  • Traffic
    • Construction Updates
  • Sports
    • Green Bay Packers
      • Green & Gold Podcast
    • Milwaukee Brewers
      • Brewers Weekly Podcast
      • Brewers Extra Innings
      • First Pitch
    • Milwaukee Bucks
      • Bucks Talk
      • Bucks Weekly: The Podcast
    • NCAA
    • Extra Points
  • Shows
    • Wisconsin’s Morning News
    • Steve Scaffidi
    • Jeff Wagner
    • Wisconsin’s Afternoon News
      • The Beatles & More! An England Adventure with Sandy Maxx and Journeys Connect
      • Spectacular Scandinavia with John Mercure and Collette
    • WTMJ Nights
    • Wisconsin’s Weekend Morning News
    • WTMJ Conversations
    • Reporter’s Notebook
    • Featured Shows
      • Accunet Mortgage & Realty Show
      • Creative Planning presents, Rethink Your Money with John Hagensen
      • Drake & Associates Retirement Ready Show
      • Every Day Health
      • Fix It Show
      • Hired! The GKB Recruitment Show
      • Money Talk, The Annex Wealth Management Show
  • Podcasts
    • WTMJ Conversations 2023: The Podcast
    • Wisconsin’s Morning News Podcast
    • The Steve Scaffidi Show
    • Jeff Wagner Podcast
    • Wisconsin’s Afternoon News Podcast
    • WTMJ Nights Podcast
    • Wisconsin’s Weekend Morning News Podcast
    • The Truth on WTMJ: The Podcast
    • WTMJ Conversations Podcast
    • Milwaukee Brewers
      • First Pitch
      • Brewers Weekly Podcast
      • Brewers Extra Innings Podcast
    • Milwaukee Bucks
      • Bucks Weekly: The Podcast
      • Bucks Talk: The Podcast
    • Green Bay Packers
      • Green & Gold Podcast
    • Featured Show Podcasts
      • The Fix-It Show Podcast
      • Money Talk, The Annex Wealth Management Show Podcast
      • The Accunet Mortgage and Realty Show Podcast
      • The Fox World Travel Show Podcast
      • Creative Planning presents, Rethink Your Money with John Hagensen
  • Features
    • WTMJ Cares: Polar Plunge with Vitrano for Special Olympics
    • The Beatles & More! An England Adventure with Sandy Maxx and Journeys Connect
    • Spectacular Scandinavia with John Mercure and Collette
    • Wagner’s Home Improvement Showcase
    • 2023 Greater Milwaukee International Car & Truck Show
    • Annex Wealth Management Webinar
    • Every Day Health
    • Sunday Sip
  • Contests
LISTEN LIVE
No Result
View All Result
WTMJ
No Result
View All Result

Prosecutor: Proud Boys attacked ‘heart’ of democracy on 1/6

AP News by AP News
January 12, 2023
in AP National, AP News, National
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterEmail

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, LINDSAY WHITEHURST and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants led a coordinated attack on “the heart of our democracy” in a desperate attempt to keep Donald Trump in the White House, a federal prosecutor said Thursday at the start of their seditious conspiracy trial.

Jurors began hearing attorneys’ opening statements for the trial more than two years after members of the far-right extremist group joined a pro-Trump mob in storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough said the Proud Boys knew that Trump’s hopes for a second term in office were quickly fading as Jan. 6 approached. So the group leaders assembled a “fighting force” to stop the transfer of presidential power to Joe Biden, McCullough said. Tarrio saw a Biden presidency as a “threat to the Proud Boys’ existence,” the prosecutor said.

McCullough showed jurors a video clip of Trump infamously telling the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during his first presidential debate with Biden in 2020, a moment that led to an explosion of interest in the group.

“These men did not stand back. They did not stand by. Instead, they mobilized,” the prosecutor said.

Proud Boys leaders recruited new members “to help them achieve their goals,” McCullough said. On Jan. 6, they gathered at a pre-arranged spot and began to advance on the Capitol before Trump finished his speech.

“The time for action had arrived,” the prosecutor said.

The trial comes on the heels of the seditious conspiracy convictions of two leaders of the Oath Keepers, another far-right extremist group. Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and Florida chapter leader Kelly Meggs were convicted of conspiring to block the transfer of presidential power from Trump, a Republican, to Biden, a Democrat. Three other Oath Keepers were acquitted of the charge. They were, however, convicted of other serious charges.

The case against Tarrio and his four associates is one of the most consequential to emerge from the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. The trial will provide an in-depth look at a group that has become an influential force in mainstream Republican politics.

Defense lawyers, on the other hand, have said there was never any plan to go into the Capitol or stop Congress’ certification of the electoral vote won by Biden.

“Over and over and over and over the government has been told by witnesses there was no plan for January 6,” said Nicholas Smith, attorney for Ethan Nordean, a Proud Boys chapter president from Auburn, Washington. Nordean went into the Capitol looking for friends and did not damage anything or hurt anyone there, he said.

The defense has also accused prosecutors of trying to silence potential defense witnesses. Tarrio’s lawyers have not said whether he will take the stand in his defense.

Tarrio’s other co-defendants are Joseph Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, a self-described Proud Boys organizer; Zachary Rehl, who was president of the Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia; and Dominic Pezzola, a Proud Boys member from Rochester, New York.

The trial will lay out private communications between them, as well as their public statements, their coordinated actions at the Capitol and their celebrations of the riot before they tried to cover their tracks.

A message that Tarrio posted on social media before Jan. 6 said, “Lords of War” over a photo of Pezzola with hashtags ”#J6″ and ”#J20.”

“These lords of war joined together to stop the transfer of presidential power,” McCullough said.

Tarrio’s lieutenants were part of the first wave of rioters to push onto Capitol grounds and charge past police barricades toward the building, according to prosecutors.

Jurors saw a video of Pezzola using a stolen riot shield to smash in a window, allowing rioters to pour into the Capitol. Pezzola took a video of himself taking a “victory smoke” on a cigar inside the Capitol, the prosecutor said.

Tarrio, who’s from Miami, wasn’t in Washington on Jan. 6 because he was arrested two days before the riot and charged with vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church during a protest in December 2020. He was ordered to leave the capital, but prosecutors say he remained engaged in the extremist group’s planning for Jan. 6.

Monitoring the riot from afar, Tarrio posted a message urging Proud Boys to stay at the Capitol.

“Make no mistake,” he wrote. “We did this.”

A day after the attack, Tarrio wrote a message that said, “God didn’t put me there for a reason.”

“We would still be there,” he added.

The Justice Department has charged nearly 1,000 people across the United States over the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection, and its investigation continues to grow.

The Proud Boys’ trial is the first major trial to begin since the House committee investigating the insurrection urged the department to bring criminal charges against Trump and associates who were behind his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

While the criminal referral has no real legal standing, it adds to political pressure already on Attorney General Merrick Garland and the special counsel he appointed, Jack Smith, who’s conducting an investigation into Jan. 6 and Trump’s actions.

Jury selection in the case took two weeks as a slew of potential jurors said they associated the Proud Boys with hate groups or white nationalism. The Capitol can be seen in the distance from parts of the courthouse, where a second group of Oath Keepers id also currently on trial for seditious conspiracy, which carries up to 20 years behind bars upon conviction.

Tensions bubbled over at times as jury selection slowed to a crawl and defense lawyers complained that too many potential jurors were biased against the Proud Boys. Defense attorneys challenged jurors who expressed support for causes such as Black Lives Matter, saying that could indicate prejudice against the Proud Boys.

Lawyers and the judge clashed during sometimes chaotic pretrial legal wrangling to the point where two defense attorneys threatened to withdraw from the case. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, lashed out after defense lawyers repeatedly interrupted and talked over him on Wednesday, warning that he would find them in contempt if it continued.

___

Richer reported from Boston.

___

For full AP coverage of the Capitol riot, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Previous Post

AP Top Business News at 3:52 p.m. EST

Next Post

Wisconsin Republicans block ‘conversion therapy’ ban

AP News

AP News

Stay Connected

  • 22.3k Followers
  • 1k Follower
  • 679 Subscribers

Most Popular

Reporter’s Notebook for 3/6/21

Ford’s Tenn. plant could make 500K electric pickups a year

March 24, 2023
Reporter’s Notebook for 3/6/21

Nola vs. deGrom highlights MLB’s 2023 opening-day matchups

March 24, 2023
Southeast Wisconsin, Winter Storm Warning

Winter Storm Warning: Southeast Wisconsin facing 3-to-7 inches of snow on first Saturday of Spring

March 24, 2023
Reporter’s Notebook for 3/6/21

Bezos’ rocket company pins crash on overheated engine nozzle

March 24, 2023
Reporter’s Notebook for 3/6/21

3 astronauts delayed on space station to return in September

March 24, 2023
WTMJ

For more than 90 years, WTMJ-AM has been "Wisconsin's Radio Station".

Follow Us

Home

News

Weather

Traffic

Sports

Shows

Podcasts

Features

Careers

Contests

Recent News

Reporter’s Notebook for 3/6/21

Ford’s Tenn. plant could make 500K electric pickups a year

March 24, 2023
Reporter’s Notebook for 3/6/21

Nola vs. deGrom highlights MLB’s 2023 opening-day matchups

March 24, 2023
  • Home
  • News
  • Weather
  • Traffic
  • Sports
  • Shows
  • Podcasts
  • Features
  • Contests

© 2022 Good Karma Brands, LLC.

  • LISTEN LIVE
  • Home
  • News
    • News
    • Local News
    • Coronavirus
    • Decision Wisconsin
  • Weather
    • Weather
    • Watches and Warnings
    • Closings and Delays
    • Flight Status
  • Traffic
  • Construction Updates
  • Sports
    • Sports
    • Green Bay Packers
    • Milwaukee Brewers
    • Milwaukee Bucks
  • Shows
    • Shows
    • Wisconsin’s Morning News
    • Steve Scaffidi
    • Jeff Wagner
    • Wisconsin’s Afternoon News
      • Spectacular Scandinavia with John Mercure and Collette
    • WTMJ Nights
    • WTMJ Conversations
    • Featured Shows
  • Podcasts
  • Features
    • Features
    • Good Karma Give Back
    • WTMJ Roundtable
  • Contests
  • Alexa
No Result
View All Result

© 2022 Good Karma Brands, LLC.