Many have claimed the Department of Justice (DOJ) under Attorney General (AG) Merrick Garland has been too slow in his investigations. But the evidence against the Proud Boys the AG collected when the “feds executed search warrants on Parler,” suggests otherwise. Parler is a far-right social media site connected to the Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, according to The Southern Poverty Law Center.
These communications among Tarrio and four other Proud Boys hyped up the failed coup and proved that they believed the “seditious conspiracy” against President Joe Biden’s 2020 win. Given the “new court filings,” the evidence linked to the Proud Boys suggested a “sweeping federal investigation” and nine-plus charges after January 6, 2021, The Daily Beast reported.
Some of the defendants claimed [internal Proud Boys’ documents are irrelevant or that they paint the group in a bad light.] Prosecutors argued:
‘[I]t’s the Proud Boys’ own fault if they look bad in the internal messages, pointing to a defendant who used a racist slur in his username.’
The prosecution’s latest list exposed how AG Garland might have the painted the fullest picture yet of how the trial will go. Much of the evidence against the Proud Boys was from their own phones. That evidence included “three of the five defendants’ phones.”
“Our disposition towards the police needs to be reevaluated.”
The phones could prove the Proud Boys’ dealings on Jan. 6, 2021:
‘[E]vidence list includes 24 iPhone videos from defendant Zachary Rehl, from 12:36 to 3:11, when the Capitol break-in was underway.’
Prosecutors will expose communications from different apps, too. For example, the Proud Boys allegedly planned their attack on Telegram. This evidence could be found in groups or individual chats with Tarrio. They had been talking on this app since September 2020. In a January 1, 2021 Telegram exchange, a chat prequelled the “high-ranking group members turning against police:”
‘Our disposition towards the police needs to be reevaluated.’
One anonymous member spoke of “escalation [against cops was ] an inevitability.” Another Proud Boy said:
‘It’s coming to it. I mean how much longer are we going to let this shit continue.’
‘Proud Boy Jeremy Bertinom #fucktheblue pled guilty to seditious conspiracy. And Proud Boy leader Joe Biggs wrote:
‘I’m ready to just be the Zamboni. And just roll over these mother fuckers’
Defendants tried to keep out of evidence a document supposedly planning to take buildings throughout “the Capitol complex.” At that time defendant Ethan “Rufio Panman” Nordean tried to keep “certain evidence, including vulgar Proud Boys messages,” out of evidence. [He argued] this was because these messages might “unfairly bias a jury.”
The Ministry of Self Defense, a Proud Boys chatter group, wrote that Nordean was against the release:
‘[C]ertain evidence that the messages are central to the case, and so consistently vulgar that redacting them would “render statements unintelligible.”‘
The prosecutors wrote this about the documents “allegedly used in coordinating the Capitol attack:“
‘Take for example the government’s evidence of video messages exchanged among MOSD Leaders during the initial moments of the riot. The video is direct evidence of the MOSD leadership’s command and control of the men they led to the Capitol and includes real-time reactions from co-conspirator Charles Donohoe and directives from coconspirator Jeremy Bertino. The government can do little about the fact that the screen name assigned to Charles Donohoe in the message string was “Cracker Ni**er Fa**ot”‘
Prior to the riot and on a podcast, ‘Nordean’s [public statements] foreshadowed his plans and were included among the evidence. He claimed the “D.C. police officers stop[ped] him during an earlier rally:”
‘We’ll replace you. We don’t care about … we care about law and order that much that we will assemble an army that will literally just replace you like that. We’ll just be like ‘I’ll take your badge. Shit’s mine now. You’re no longer sitting in office. You’re no longer the governor, this guy over here that we just voted in right now is. Goodbye.’
The trial has a December state date.
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
Christie writes Gloria Christie Reports & Three White Lions Substack newsletters and a Three White Lions podcast available on Apple, Spotify, etc. She is a political journalist for the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery (in progress). Find her here on Facebook. Or at Three White Lions her book on Amazon Kindle Vella and the Gloria Christie Three White Lions podcast on Apple, Spotify, etc.
