For practically 18 months, the Proud Boys have been on the middle of felony and congressional investigations into final yr’s violent assault on the Capitol.
Greater than 40 members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group, have been charged in reference to the assault, together with a number of of their leaders who now face expenses of seditious conspiracy. The group additionally featured prominently this month on the first Home Committee listening to on Jan. 6, which indicated the Proud Boys performed a vital function in instigating the storming of the Capitol.
Constructing on the work of on-line researchers, The New York Instances has produced a brand new detailed view of the Proud Boys’ function in instigating the chaos that consumed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. After months of finding out video footage of the assault and The Instances has mirrored on the Proud Boys’ inside communications and located that members of the group maneuvered that day in a coordinated method, in a fashion not beforehand identified and in a fashion which differed from that of the tons of of different rioters who stormed the constructing.
Evaluation by The Instances discovered a sample in how the Proud Boys moved on the bottom. Time and time once more, at key moments when the Capitol was breached, the group employed the identical ways: figuring out entry factors into the constructing, angering different protesters, and typically instantly taking part within the violence. After they met resistance, the group’s leaders reconsidered, and groups of Proud Boys focused new entry factors to the Capitol.
Additionally, by order of their leaders, members of the Proud Boys didn’t put on their typical black and yellow uniforms that day. As a substitute, they purposely dressed to mix in with the gang and seem like different protesters in a manner that disguised their actions and – till now – downplayed their significance in driving the motion ahead.
Attorneys for the Proud Boys have staunchly denied that the group had any pre-agreed plan to storm the Capitol – not to mention riotously overthrow the federal government – and is at the moment pursuing the case of the group’s former chief, Enrique Tarrio, and 4 of his subordinates to look in courtroom in Washington in August. As this prosecution progresses and different members of the Proud Boys are arrested, extra particulars concerning the pivotal function performed by the group on January 6 will come to gentle.
However for now, The Instances video presents the clearest and most complete account.
Reporting was contributed by Haley Willis and Cora Engelbrecht. Produced by Malachy Browne.
