Top Proud Boy Begins Sharing Information With Federal Authorities

0
1524

New York resident and Capitol rioter Matthew Greene, who is a member of the violent, far-right group known as the Proud Boys, has pleaded guilty to a pair of felony offenses and was apparently set following this plea deal to provide information to federal authorities. The charges to which Greene pleaded guilty include conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding, and as of the point that his plea deal was revealed last month, Greene was “the first Proud Boy charged in the alleged conspiracy to plead guilty, and could provide vital information to the government’s investigation as he’s expected to cooperate,” as reported by CNN. Greene is facing up to 51 months — or up to a little over four years — in prison.

CNN also identified Greene as “the first member of the Proud Boys to potentially give prosecutors information about his organization.” The Proud Boys weren’t the only far-right group with members or affiliates involved in the Capitol violence; others include the Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers, and the founder and national leader of the latter organization (Stewart Rhodes) was recently charged with offenses related to the riot including seditious conspiracy. Rhodes has a hearing on his detention status scheduled for the 24th; a co-defendant, Edward Vallejo, was ordered this week to be held in jail ahead of further proceedings, suggesting that Rhodes could meet the same fate.

The Proud Boys also had higher-ups involved in the violence, with CNN noting that Greene and others have been alleged to have received directions via radio from leaders within the group. Greene’s sentencing hearing is slated for March, and he’s set to remain in custody until that point. So far, the longest prison sentence received by a Capitol rioter went to Florida resident Robert Palmer, who was sentenced to over five years in jail after assaulting police while at the Capitol. It’s important to be clear that when Trump and others seek to excuse what went on at the Capitol, they’re not just making theoretical arguments — they’re explicitly trying to explain away or downplay or otherwise accept savage physical assaults on scores of police officers, in addition to the legitimate threats to the lives of top governmental leaders and others, like staffers.

D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine (D) has sued the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys alongside a slew of individuals associated with them, seeking financial damages related to their role in the attack on the Capitol. As previously reported on this site: As explained by The Washington Post, Racine’s lawsuit “cites the modern version of an 1871 law known as the Ku Klux Klan Act,” and that law — as its name might suggest — was broadly geared against the usage of violence to impede the exercise of political rights. The Post notes that the law was also angled “to safeguard government officials carrying out their duties” — an element of the government’s operation that was, of course, directly under threat on January 6 last year.