Category Archives: Proud Boys

Former President Donald Trumpslies about a stolen 2020 electionunited right-wing supporters, conspiracy theorists and militants on Jan. 6, but the aftermath ofthe insurrectionis roiling two of the most prominent far-right extremist groups at the U.S. Capitol that day.

More than three dozen members and associates across boththe Proud Boysandthe Oath Keepershave been charged with crimes. Some local chapters cut ties with national leadership in the weeks after the deadly siege. The Proud Boys chairman called for a pause in the rallies that often have led to clashes with anti-fascist activists. And one Oath Keeper has agreed to cooperate against others charged in the riot.

Some extremism experts see parallels between the fallout from the Capitol riot and the schisms that divided far-right figures and groups after their violent clashes with counter-protesters atthe Unite the Right white nationalist rallyin Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. The white supremacist alt-right movementfractured and ultimately faded from public viewafter the violence erupted that weekend.

I think something kind of like that is happening right now in the broader far-right movement, where the cohesive tissue that brought them all together being the 2020 election its kind of dissolved, said Jared Holt, a resident fellow at the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensic Research Lab.

Like Unite the Right, there is a huge disaster, a P.R. disaster, and now theyve got the attention of the feds. And its even more intense now because they have the national security apparatus breathing down their necks, he added.

But others believe President Joe Bidens victory and the Jan. 6 investigation, the largest federal prosecution in history, might animate the militia movement fueled by an anti-government anger.

Were already seeing a lot of this rhetoric being spewed in an effort to pull in people, said Freddy Cruz, a Southern Poverty Law Center research analyst who studies anti-government groups. Its very possible that people will become energized and try to coordinate more activity given that we have a Democratic president in office.

Theinsurrectionists who descended on the nations capitalbriefly disrupted the certification of Bidens presidential win and sent terrified lawmakers running for their lives.

The mob marched to the Capitol andbroke through police barricades and overwhelmed officers, violently shoving their way into the building to chants of Hang Mike Pence and Stop the Steal. Some rioters came prepared with pepper spray, baseball bats and other weapons.

Members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers make up just a small fraction ofthe more than 400 people chargedso far. Prosecutors have narrowed in on the two extremist groups as they try to determine how much planning went into the attack, but authorities have said theyre intent on arresting anyone involved in the riot.

More than two dozen Proud Boys leaders, members or associates are among those arrested. The group of self-described Western chauvinists emerged from far-right fringes during the Trump administration to mainstream GOP circles, with allies likelongtime Trump backer Roger Stone. The group claims it has more than 30,000 members nationwide.

In the sustainedprotests last summer over police brutality, their counter demonstrations often devolved into violence. Law enforcement stepped in during a protest in Michigan. Members were accused ofvandalizing propertyin Washington, D.C. Then, during a presidential debate with Biden, the group gained greater notoriety after Trump refused to condemn white supremacist groups and told the Proud Boys directlyto stand back and stand by.

Chairman Henry Enrique Tarrio hasnt been charged in the riot. He wasnt there on Jan. 6. Hed beenarrested in an unrelated vandalism caseas he arrived in Washington two days before the insurrection and was ordered out of the area by a judge. Law enforcement later said Tarrio was picked up in part to help quell potential violence.

Tarrio insists the criminal charges havent weakened or divided the group. He says he has met with leaders of chapters that declared their independence and patched up their differences.

Weve been through the wringer, Tarrio said in an interview. Any other group after January 6th would fall apart.

But leaders of several local Proud Boys chapters, including in Seattle, Las Vegas, Indiana and Alabama, said after Jan. 6 that their members were cutting ties with the organizations national leadership. Four leaders, including national Elders Council member Ethan Nordean, have been charged by federal officials with planning and leading an attack on the Capitol. One of Nordeans attorneys said he wasnt responsible for any crimes committed by other people.

The Las Vegas chapters statement on the instant messaging platform Telegram in February didnt mention Jan. 6 directly, but it claimed the overall direction of the organization was endangering its members.

The Alabama group expressed concern about reports that Tarrio had previously beena federal informant. It was revealed in court records recently that Tarrio had worked undercover and cooperated with investigators after he was accused of fraud in 2012.

We reject and disavow the proven federal informant, Enrique Tarrio, and any and all chapters that choose to associate with him, the Alabama group posted online in February.

Tarrio said he suspended national Proud Boy rallies shortly after Jan. 6 in part to focus on helping members facing criminal charges. Tarrio described Jan. 6 as horrible but said authorities overcharged his jailed lieutenants and are politically persecuting them.

Meanwhile, 16 members and associates of the Oath Keepers a militia group founded in 2009 that recruits current and former military, police and first responders have been charged with conspiring to block the certification of the vote. The groups founder and leader, Stewart Rhodes, has said there were as many as 40,000 Oath Keepers at its peak, but one extremism expert estimates the groups membership stands around 3,000 nationally.

Rhodes has not been charged, and its unclear if he will be. But he has repeatedly come up in court documents as Person One, suggesting hes a central focus of investigators.

Days after the election, Rhodes instructed his followers during a GoToMeeting call to go to Washington to let Trump know that the people are behind him, and he expressed hope that Trump would call up the militia to help the president stay in power, authorities say. Rhodes warned they could be headed for a bloody, bloody civil war, and a bloody you can call it an insurrection or you can call it a war or fight, according to court documents.

On Jan. 6, several Oath Keepers, wearing helmets and reinforced vests, were seen on camera shouldering their way up the Capitol steps in a military-style stack formation. Rhodes was communicating that day with some Oath Keepers who entered the Capitol and was seen standing with several of the defendants outside the building after the riot, prosecutors say.

Rhodes has sought to distance himself from those whove been arrested, insisting the members went rogue and there was never a plan to enter the Capitol. But he has continued in interviews with right-wing hosts since Jan. 6 to pushthe lie that the election was stolen, while the Oath Keepers website remains active with posts painting the group as the victim of political persecution.

Messages left at numbers listed for Rhodes werent immediately returned.

Court documents show discord among the group as early the night of the attack. Someone identified in the records only as Person Eleven blasted the Oath Keepers in a Signal chat with Rhodes and others as a huge fn joke and called Rhodes the dumbass I heard you were, court documents say.

Two months later, Rhodes lamented in a message to another Oath Keeper that the national team had gotten too lax and too complacent. He pledged to tighten up the command and control in the group even if it means losing some people, according to court documents.

After the riot, the North Carolina Oath Keepers branch said it was splitting from Rhodes group. Its president, who didnt return messages from the AP, toldThe News Reporternewspaper it wouldnt be a part of anything that terrorizes anybody or goes against law enforcement.

A leader of an Arizona chapter also slammed Rhodes and those facing charges,saying on CBS 60 Minutesthat the attack goes against everything weve ever taught, everything we believe in.

The Oath Keepers leader has also suggested the group may be facing financial pressures. In an interview posted on the Oath Keepers website, Rhodes said it has been difficult for the group to raise money as its been kicked off certain websites.

The group also lost the ability to process credit card payments online after the company demanded that Rhodes disavow the arrested members and he refused, Rhodes said in a March interview for far-right website Gateway Pundit. The Oath Keepers website now says it cannot accept new memberships online because of malicious leftist attacks and instructs people to mail in applications and dues.

A member of the Oath Keepers was the first defendantto plead guilty in the riot. Jon Ryan Schaffer has also agreed to cooperate with the governments investigation. The Justice Department has promised to consider putting him in the witness security program, suggesting it sees him as a valuable cooperator in the Jan. 6 probe.

Excerpt from:

Charges from US Capitol insurrection roil Proud Boys and Oath Keepers - WRBL

Dozens of merchants here on the shore of Puget Sound received a letter in August of 2019 decrying the rise of far-right extremism in America and its arrival in their town.

Here in our own community, a prominent seafood restaurant on Marine View Drive has a connection with the Proud Boys, it said.

The organizers of the mailing who left out their names and the name of the restaurant because they feared retribution enclosed a sign that read Hate has no business here for businesses to post in their windows.

Few did, but word was spreading in Des Moines.

Ethan Nordean, an on-and-off assistant manager at his fathers restaurant, Wallys Chowder House, was a rising star in the violent, far-right hate group that made its name brawling with left-wing activists. The issue divided the town.

Some residents were calling for a boycott or at least for Ethans father who billed his restaurant as a place where youll be treated like family to denounce his son and white supremacy.

Even if the owners dont share the beliefs, they need to address it, Byron Viles, an auto parts store manager, wrote in a post on a community Facebook page that attracted more than 500 comments last June. Silence is part of what brought Hitler to power.

Wallys Chowder House, owned by Mike Nordean, became the focus of controversy in Des Moines, Wash., when his adult son and sometimes employee, Ethan, became prominent in the far-right Proud Boys.

(Richard Read / Los Angeles Times)

Others defended Ethans parents, Mike and Judy Nordean, saying they should not be held responsible for the activities of their adult son.

Boycotting them for something out of their control is silly without proof they are involved themselves, wrote Marcus Emery, a fellow restaurant owner.

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After reaching a fever pitch last summer, the controversy receded, and for a few months it seemed that Wallys might simply go back to being good old Wallys.

Then on Jan. 6, the Proud Boys took the lead in the march on the U.S. Capitol, reaching the steps ahead of the larger mob that stormed the building to try to block the certification of Joe Bidens election as president.

Front and center was a 30-year-old dressed in black with sunglasses and a tactical vest: Ethan Nordean.

::

Wallys was a pillar of Des Moines, a marina town of 30,000 whose popularity among retirees made it more conservative than Seattle, 15 miles north.

Locals came to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. Tourists came for fresh Northwest salmon and Dungeness crab.

Greeting customers at the door was Mike Nordean, who had dedicated his life to the restaurant business. He got his start in high school busing tables at a local DoubleTree Inn, quickly working his way up to bartender and catering manager.

He was fresh out of college in 1979 when his first wife died in a car accident. Even after he remarried, he remained close to his first wifes parents, and in 1991 he joined them to buy a drive-in restaurant in Buckley, Wash., a logging town southeast of Seattle. Two years later they opened Wallys.

The restaurants flourished, affording Mike and Judy a grand house in the Seattle suburb of Auburn and a vacation home in Arizona, where at 65 he now spends much of his time.

Mike Nordean, left, and his son, Ethan, as a young man at a family gathering.

(Nordean family)

He described himself as moderately conservative while supporting gay rights and diversity among his staff but kept his politics out of banter with customers and shunned social media. She frequently broadcast her pro-gun, anti-Muslim and anti-gay views on Twitter.

Ethan Nordean grew up around the restaurants. His father called him Dude Man and taught him to ski, wakeboard and drive ATVs.

Trying out for Little League when he was around 9, Ethan swung and missed repeatedly until bursting into tears, his father recalled.

I think he was upset not because of the coach, but because he felt he was disappointing me, he said. I thought, Oh, man, Im putting too much pressure on him.

After Mike Nordean bought out the partnership, Ethan and his stepsister Judys daughter from a previous marriage stood to take over the family business one day.

::

When Gavin McInnes, a founder of Vice Media, launched the Proud Boys during the 2016 presidential election, he described it as an all-male group of Western chauvinists who opposed political correctness and white guilt.

It attracted men with misogynistic and anti-Muslim views and ties to white supremacists. Experts on extremism have labeled it a hate group.

Joining the group was one of the best decisions Ive ever made, Ethan Nordean told Alex Jones, the right-wing conspiracy theorist.

In a 2018 interview on Jones internet show, he said he had attended his first right-wing rally in May 2017 in Seattle.

Thats where I was introduced to the Proud Boys, who allowed me to network with like-minded men, he said, telling Jones that the group defended 1st Amendment rights that police, controlled by liberal politicians, failed to uphold.

You start to kind of develop this feeling that these are no longer people who are necessarily Americans per se, but theyre kind of anti-America, he said.

Mike Nordean said that his son had floundered since joining the Navy out of high school in hopes of becoming a SEAL, only to wash out of basic training. A bodybuilder, he worked in a gym and sold fitness supplements until his father hired him as a dishwasher, then as an assistant manager.

The Proud Boys appeared to offer the sort of camaraderie and acceptance that he longed for, Mike Nordean said.

Mike Nordean, left, on vacation in Cannon Beach, Ore., with his son during Ethans high school years.

(Nordean family)

When Ethan and another employee at Wallys told him they had joined a patriotic organization that protected antiabortion protesters and others from violent leftists, Nordean strongly disapproved, he said.

I just looked at them and I said, Guys, this is a really bad idea.... If this gets in the way of your jobs, youll both be fired, he recalled. I was so against it, and so angry.

It took a year, but Nordean said that on May 5, 2018, he fired his son.

Ethan Nordeans rising profile in the Proud Boys really started to affect the business and the employees, his father said. I could sense it in the community.

Jessi Bird, a waitress at the time, said that staff members who answered the phone were routinely accused by callers of being racists. Regulars at the restaurant were asking questions too.

I didnt know what to say, Bird recalled. Because if youre spending money here, you are maybe in some way supporting what Ethans doing, flying all over the country attending rallies.

Tension grew that June when video of Ethan knocking out an antifa, or anti-fascist, activist at a rally in Portland went viral, making him something of a folk hero on the extreme right.

Its beautiful, Jones said of Ethans sweeping right hook during their interview the next week. How good did it feel, at least later, once you saw his head hit the pavement?

Well, like Gavin McInnes says, violence isnt great, but justified violence is amazing, Nordean said with a chuckle.

Bird said that Ethan and fellow Proud Boys gathered at the restaurant at least three times after rallies that summer and enjoyed food and drink on the house.

She said she and Ethan had often debated politics but that she demurred after he took the nom de guerre Rufio Panman a reference to a character in Hook, a movie about Peter Pan and his Lost Boys and began getting in street fights.

In her view, Ethans beliefs came from a lack of exposure to people of other backgrounds, and the influence of his mother who declined to comment for this story.

On Aug. 3, 2018, Judy Nordean tweeted: Antifa is another word for ISIS. They dress the same. They behave the same and [they] have no accountability. America is watching!

In another tweet that day, she expressed admiration for President Trump and asked whether he could do anything about Portland, Ore., Mayor Ted Wheeler giving antifa a pass to attack citizens.

The next day, Ethan brawled with antifa activists in Portland.

::

Ethan Nordean was becoming a pariah in Des Moines and beyond.

That fall, he and his new wife, Cory Dryden, a longtime waitress at Wallys, had to cancel their wedding celebration after managers at Kiana Lodge in Poulsbo, Wash., learned he was in the Proud Boys and told them they were not welcome.

Mike Nordean, owner of Wallys Chowder House, thought son Ethan would never leave the Proud Boys without a job in the family restaurant business but the affiliation was taking a toll.

(Richard Read / Los Angeles Times)

Employees at Wallys began to fear for their safety after their photographs showed up on social media next to threats against Ethan, according to a recently settled lawsuit that Rose-Ann Roxi Wills a waitress and Birds sister filed last year against the business and its owners, alleging a hostile work environment and wrongful termination.

Trying to help his son, Mike Nordean eventually hired him back.

The lawsuit said that Ethan Nordean returned in November 2018. Mike Nordean disputed that, saying he didnt employ Ethan again until January of 2020 and not at Wallys but as an assistant manager at his other restaurant.

The manager there, Kimarie Johnson, said Mike Nordean told her that it was their best hope for getting Ethan out of the Proud Boys.

I felt like it could almost kill Mike, like hed have a heart attack or stroke out, she said. He said, Ive just got to get him away from these people.

But Ethan was no less willing to leave the group than his familys opponents in Des Moines were willing to give up their fight.

We owe a boycott of Wallys to future Des Moines citizens, Brian Hansen, an Army veteran, wrote last June on a community Facebook page. We do not want it to become a bigger Proud Boy hangout.

Heather Caputo, a grocery store worker, wrote: This is hard for me because I have always had such positive experiences there, but I also dont want my money to support any hate groups.

Others made note of Judy Nordeans tweets and of a 2019 post that appeared on the Wallys Chowder House Facebook account promoting a far-right rally in support of a man accused of trying to run down left-wing protesters with his pickup while flying a Confederate flag.

The post had quickly disappeared, but not before Julie VanSanten, a home-schooling mom in town, captured a screenshot, which she posted as the online debate amped up last year.

Great catch Julie, wrote Jayme Quinn Wagner, a Des Moines homemaker, on the Facebook forum.

Proud Boys members including Ethan Nordean, right, help lead the march to the U.S. Capitol before overrunning it on Jan. 6.

(Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)

Other Facebook commenters came to the Nordeans defense.

Every time I see something about this I go buy a couple hundred in gift cards from Wallys, wrote Carri Litowitz, a Trump supporter who worked at her husbands construction company.

::

Mike Nordean said he realized last spring that the uproar was endangering his business.It started to catch fire, the onslaught online, he said. We had almost a five-star rating on Yelp, and those people went after that.

He decided that he had no choice but to fire Ethan again. He also persuaded his wife to take down her Twitter account, and he hired a crisis communications consultant to launch a damage-control campaign.

Let me say right off the bat that I love my son, he wrote in a public statement on June 19 last year. That said, I admit that I was slow to recognize how radical and violent that group is.

Until very recently, my wife and I were blind to the ideology that our son supports, the statement said. We were told by our son that this group was a patriotic group that were protectors who stood up for freedom of speech and traditional values. We regretfully believed him.

Nordean wrote that Ethan no longer worked for the restaurants. He said he had also fired Dryden, his sons wife.

Townspeople had mixed reactions.

Pat Glaze, a commenter on a local news blog, criticized Nordean for publicly condemning Ethan, asking: What kind of a loser throws his own child under the bus to appease violent anti-American leftists?

Other residents welcomed the statement, although many found it implausible that the couple didnt know about the groups extremism much earlier.

The next month, Des Moines citizens learned that the city had given Wallys $2,500 in pandemic relief funding to cook meals for veterans and senior citizens. Several residents demanded to know why their taxes were indirectly helping a hate group.

Samantha Scown, a teacher, asked the City Council at a meeting in July to take some action to show that Des Moines did not support racists.

Its just kind of a stain on our city, she said.

Anthony Martinelli, a city councilman who favored removing Wallys from the meal program, received a cease-and-desist letter from Nordeans lawyer threatening to sue him for defamation.

He is saying that he doesnt support what his son supported, Martinelli said in an interview. I hope that hes not doing that just for public relations.

The council let the program stand.

::

As Trump spoke at the Ellipse outside the White House on Jan. 6, Ethan Nordean marched along the National Mall from the Washington Monument.

More than 100 Proud Boys members followed as he barked commands through a bullhorn.

Ethan Nordean, right, followed by the mob that attacked the Capitol in an effort to block the certification of Joe Bidens election as president.

(Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)

One member, Eddie Block, rolled up to Ethan in an electric wheelchair to livestream the scene. The girls want to see Rufio, he said.

Right side, slow down a little bit, Ethan said. Looking sharp, boys.

The Proud Boys shouted Uhuru, their battle cry, which means freedom in Swahili.

They were among the first insurgents to reach the base of the Capitol. In court filings, federal prosecutors described Nordean as a major figure in the attack.

We stormed the capital. It was great, he allegedly wrote afterward on the encrypted app Telegram. The cops started shooting us with pepper balls and boom bombs and we stormed them and busted down the doors. Thousands and thousands of people it was insane.

Go here to read the rest:

He led the Proud Boys in the Capitol riot, shaming his town - Los Angeles Times

Four months and hundreds of arrests after the chaos at the Capitol, the investigation into the Jan. 6 attack by a pro-Trump mob has come into focus.

More than 2,000 criminal charges have been filed against 411 suspects, including hundreds of felonies such as assaulting officers and trespassing with a weapon.

Authorities have tied more than 50 suspects to political or far-right groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

Nearly 70 of those charged in the riot are current or former members of the military, law enforcement or government - most of whom swore an oath to uphold the law and serve the public.

About 50 defendants are still detained, many charged with violent offenses, weapons violations or larger conspiracies that point to possible planned unlawful actions.

The Post has analyzed court filings, case documents and other public information about those charged. Here is what it has found.

Four months after the Jan. 6. attack on the U.S. Capitol, Congress is starkly divided about how to investigate the deadly assault by supporters of former president Donald Trump, many of whom were animated by his false assertions that the election was stolen. House Republicans this week ousted Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., from party leadership for continuing to warn that Trumps rhetoric led to violence, and some GOP lawmakers have echoed the former president in attempting to minimize the destruction of that day.

The criminal probe has swept up at least 411 suspects in what federal officials have called an unprecedented domestic attack on a branch of the U.S. government.

I have not seen a more dangerous threat to democracy than the invasion of the Capitol, Attorney General Merrick Garland told senators in a hearing Wednesday. He called the assault an attempt to interfere with the fundamental element of our democracy, a peaceful transfer of power.

Since January, prosecutors have secured their first guilty plea and cooperation deal, charged about 75 people with assaulting police and filed conspiracy charges against members of two far-right extremist groups. Those charged publicly so far with federal crimes hail from 259 counties spread across 44 states and the District of Columbia, according to an analysis by The Washington Post of court filings.

Prosecutors are building cases alleging prior planning and coordination, but the majority of people facing criminal charges were not known to be members of self-styled militias or other organized extremist groups, the filings show.

The bulk of people being charged is what law enforcement sometimes calls free agents, and that tells you we dont really have a firm grasp on the radicalization process, said Colin Clarke, director of policy and research at the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm.

Some of the information that FBI agents have found highlights more than just the intense violence and danger of that day - it points to the ongoing risk of politically motivated unrest. Officials estimate that about 800 people were part of the human wave that stormed the Capitol complex as Congress was formalizing Joe Bidens electoral college victory - hundreds of perpetrators have still not been identified.

Privately, law enforcement officials acknowledge that it could take years to identify and apprehend some of the individuals they are hunting - if they ever do - and they say there is always the possibility that some of those people, knowing they are wanted, could lash out violently again.

Rioters are detained at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Photo for The Washington Post by Amanda Voisard)

The Jan. 6 riot has produced one of the most sprawling and complex investigations in the FBIs history. In scale and scope, officials have said, only the response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, is comparable.

A review of records of the 411 people publicly charged in federal court as of Monday shows that the majority of the more than 2,000 individual criminal charges levied against defendants are misdemeanors. More than 600 of the charges are potential felonies, and slightly more than half the people charged face at least one felony.

The most common charge against the Jan. 6 defendants is knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without authority - a kind of catchall count for trespassing on restricted grounds. The second most common charge filed is disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds - a count lodged against more than 300 people. Seventy-five have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding police officers.

Early in the investigation, authorities suggested that they would lodge seditious-conspiracy charges against some of the offenders. That charge, which dates back hundreds of years, has been tricky in the rare times it has been used, and no such charges have been filed in this case. According to court filings, Justice Department prosecutors are pursuing more basic conspiracy cases against members of two prominent far-right groups who allegedly played key roles in the violence, the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.

The threat of significant jail time has led to the first guilty plea stemming from Jan. 6, in which Jon Ryan Schaffer - described in court documents as a founding member of the Oath Keepers - agreed to cooperate fully with prosecutors. In a sign of how seriously authorities consider the potential for further violence, as part of his plea deal, authorities said they will consider whether to place him in witness protection.

Schaffer, 53, a guitarist and songwriter for the internationally touring metal band Iced Earth, pleaded guilty to obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress and trespassing on restricted grounds. Schaffers lawyer, Marc Victor, said his client contacted authorities as soon as he knew they were looking for him, surrendered to the FBI, and wanted to take responsibility for his role in the Capitol riot. Under the terms of his deal, he could face roughly four years in prison, though if his cooperation is valuable to prosecutors in other cases, he might be able to shave a significant amount of time off that sentence.

As the charged cases proceed through the courts, the prosecutors will try to show how their evidence points to planning by some of the attackers, how much was spontaneous and what remains uncertain about the origins of the riot.

More than 50 people charged in connection with the Capitol riot have known affiliations with a political or extremist group, according to court records, and they account for nearly all the conspiracy charges.

The two far-right organizations that have come under the most scrutiny from the FBI for their alleged roles in the assault on Congress are the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.

More than two dozen alleged members or supporters of the Proud Boys have been charged with committing crimes involving the Capitol riot. The group, whose Canadian chapter recently dissolved after being designated a terrorist organization by the Canadian government, has a reputation for engaging in street clashes with left-wing protesters. Such confrontations fuel the groups social media appeal to young audiences online.

The Proud Boys have been a major focus of the FBIs Jan. 6 investigation from the start, in part because videos of the violence showed their members using equipment - such as radio earpieces and pieces of orange tape - suggesting a degree of prior planning, according to law enforcement officials. But their embrace of live-streaming their own actions also provided some of the best evidence against those who have been charged. The leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, has said his groups members never planned to do anything other than attend a peaceful rally that day.

Authorities accuse Joseph Biggs of leading a group of Proud Boys on a march around the Capitol before several members allegedly led some of the earliest and most aggressive efforts to charge police and smash windows and doors. Even though Biggs was unarmed and did not assault anyone, prosecutors say the Florida man played a key role in sparking the violence that unfolded. Prosecutors say Biggs forcibly entered the Capitol twice and reached the Senate chamber, where Vice President Mike Pence had been presiding before lawmakers had to flee the mob. Biggs has pleaded not guilty.

In contrast to the Proud Boys, extremism experts say, the Oath Keepers appeared more disciplined on Jan. 6, with members at times moving in unison together through the crowd, many wearing tactical vests and helmets. A self-styled militia founded in 2009, the group recruits current and former military and law enforcement members to join and help it prepare for its apocalyptic vision of the U.S. government careening toward totalitarianism.

About 15 members of the Oath Keepers have been charged. The leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, has denied concocting any plan to storm Congress; he has acknowledged the investigation and the possibility that he may be arrested.

Smaller extremist groups had members at the Capitol that day, but some of those charged adhere to an ideology that is not a formal group. Followers of QAnon, a collection of ever-evolving falsities, claim that Trump is battling Satan-worshiping liberals and child-traffickers. At least 17 of those charged expressed some form of support for QAnon ideas, according to court filings and news coverage.

Without a known leader or coherent goal, QAnon is difficult to categorize or fight, but law enforcement officials have come to view QAnon as a motivating factor to some of the rioters, and they worry that the movement could go strange new directions - or find common cause with other fringe groups - now that Trump is out of office.

Nearly 70 of the people charged in connection with the Capitol riot are current or former government, military or law enforcement members. Many of them have said they were fulfilling their duties to the public or the Constitution with their actions, driven by Trumps claims of a stolen election.

I know you dont like Trump, but He is the rightful President! Michael Lee Hardin, 50, a former Salt Lake City police officer, texted a friend from inside the Capitol, according to court documents. We will return until we win! Hardin has pleaded not guilty to four misdemeanor counts of trespassing and disorderly conduct on restricted Capitol grounds.

Those who allegedly took part in the mayhem include a range of people responsible for upholding the law and protecting safety: current and retired police officers, firefighters, local government bureaucrats and elected officials. There was a West Virginia lawmaker, a county commissioner from New Mexico and a member of a Massachusetts town council. Among the defendants is a Trump administration appointee to the State Department who had top-secret clearance: Federico Klein, who is accused of fighting police officers that day in hand-to-hand combat, according to court filings. He pleaded not guilty.

The Post has confirmed with the Defense Department that at least 46 people with military backgrounds have been charged with joining in the riot that day. Of those, four are serving in a part-time capacity in the National Guard or the Army Reserve.

Michael Foy, a Marine Corps veteran from Wixom, Mich., holds an American flag as he protests the presidential election results in Detroit on Nov. 6, 2020. (Washington Post photo by Salwan Georges)

They include 30-year-old Michael Foy, a Marine Corps veteran from Wixom, Mich., who is said to have beaten a police officer with a hockey stick, and 33-year-old Christopher Alberts, a former Army national guardsman from northern Maryland who investigators say brought a gun to the Capitol. Two Marine Corps veterans, Alex Harkrider, 34, and his friend Ryan Nichols, 30, traveled together from rural East Texas to Washington and fought their way into the Capitol, armed with a baton, a crowbar and pepper spray, and wearing tactical vests of the sort troops might wear into combat, according to court filings. All four men pleaded not guilty.

If you have a weapon, you need to get your weapon! Nichols yelled through a bullhorn outside the Capitol, according to court documents that cite video evidence posted on social media. This is the second revolution right here, folks! he shouted at another point. This is not a peaceful protest.

At least 17 of those charged were current or former members of law enforcement, including two former New York City police officers and two current officers from Rocky Mount, Va.

Thomas Webster, a 54-year-old retired New York City police officer, beat a D.C. police officer with a metal flagpole and tackled him, trying to rip off the officers face shield and gas mask, prosecutors said. He has pleaded not guilty.

Joseph Wayne Fischer, a 55-year-old officer from the North Cornwall Township Police Department in Pennsylvania, shouted, Hold the line! as he charged a line of police, according to court documents, and identified himself as a cop amid the scuffle. Fischer also pleaded not guilty.

At least 53 defendants are detained - about 13% of the total who have been charged in federal court and nearly one-quarter of the 230 who face felony charges.

The percentage of Jan. 6 defendants jailed before trial is far lower than the nearly 75% of federal defendants nationwide. Many of the former are not accused of violence, have no criminal history and have stable family and community ties and pose less risk of public danger or flight, the criteria judges use for requiring detention.

Judges have also been less willing to detain defendants pretrial because the pandemic has backlogged jury trials and the massive scale of the Jan. 6 investigation is requiring more time to decide individual cases, raising concerns that defendants could wait longer for trial in jail than any sentence they might face if convicted.

Those who are detained face charges that generally fall into at least one of three categories: violent offenses such as assaulting police, weapons violations, or wider conspiracies in which defendants are alleged to have engaged in planning or preparations for unlawful actions.

For example, about half of Jan. 6 defendants charged with assaulting police remain detained, about 30 of 75.

Many involve the most publicized confrontations with police, such as an alleged chemical spray assault on U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died the next day; the dragging down stairs and beating of police officers; the crushing of an officer in a tunnel doorway; the pursuit of Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman; and attacks with flagpoles, baseball bats, batons, crutches, bicycle racks and other weapons.

About a dozen are said to be members or associates of extremist groups such as the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers.

All defendants jailed pending trial are men except one transgender woman, and nearly three-fourths are in their 30s and 40s, with the rest evenly split between older and younger, with a median age of 37.

About 15 are U.S. military veterans, and one is a former police officer.

The youngest detained defendant is 21 - alleged Oregon Proud Boys member Jonathanpeter Klein, who has pleaded not guilty and sought release to home detention because he says he is not a flight or safety risk.

The oldest person jailed is Lonnie Coffman, 70, of Falkville, Ala., accused of parking a pickup truck with 11 Molotov-cocktails and five loaded weapons on Capitol Hill.

The detained people face felony charges punishable by at least a year in prison, except one misdemeanor defendant, who is appealing his detention order.

This report was produced in partnership with journalism students at the American University school of communication. Students Ana lvarez, Aaron Schaffer, Tobi Raji, Maya Smith, Sarah Salem and Sarah Welch contributed to the report.

Additional data was collected by George Washington University Program on Extremism. Silhouettes from Wee People.

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Here's what a sprawling investigation has found about the Capitol riot arrests - Anchorage Daily News

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Misuse of the Anti-Terrorism Act is a far greater threat to Canadian democracy and freedom than the Proud Boys ever were

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On World Press Freedom Day (May 3), Canadian politicians had much to say about freedom of speech and expression. The day before, Proud Boys Canada disbanded, accusing politicians of having violated those basic freedoms by designating it as a terrorist entity.

While Canadians are right to reject the Proud Boys self-described chauvinism, a free society should not label groups as terrorists simply for promoting prejudiced views. Democracy depends on the right to express and debate unpopular, or even offensive, opinions.

Freedom of speech is essential but not absolute. There are laws against hate speech and inciting violence. A terrorism designation is not needed to prosecute anyone who breaks those laws.

The New Democratic Party has a proud tradition of speaking up for Canadian civil liberties, even in the face of actual terrorist threats. In 1970, New Democrats stood alone in Parliament against invoking the War Measures Act, after several bombings and kidnappings perpetrated by the Front de libration du Qubec. In 2001, New Democrats were the first to oppose the Anti-Terrorism Act that was introduced after the Sept. 11 attacks.

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Now, the NDP has reversed its position and is advocating that this sweeping piece of legislation be used more extensively. In an online petition, titled Ban and Designate the Proud Boys as a Terrorist Organization, the party alleged that, The Proud Boys joined a group armed with deadly weapons as they led an assault on the U.S. Capitol this was an act of domestic terrorism.

The NDP leader moved a motion in the House of Commons calling on the government to designate the Proud Boys as a terrorist organization under the Anti-Terrorism Act. The motion passed unanimously, with no member of Parliament wishing to appear to defend the Proud Boys.

In announcing the designation, government officials cited the same event as the petition. As Reuters recently reported, In February, Canada said the group posed an active security threat and played a pivotal role in the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol in January by supporters of then-president Donald Trump.

Although the adjective deadly is being repeated, neither the Proud Boys nor other Trump supporters killed anyone at the U.S. Capitol. Five people died during, or shortly after, the riot, including two protesters from heart attacks, one protester from a drug overdose and one police officer from a stroke. The only person killed with a weapon was an unarmed Trump supporter who was shot by police.

The working title of Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice was First Impressions. Shocking images from the U.S. Capitol and wild rhetoric from some Trump supporters contributed to misleading first impressions of an armed insurrection, or domestic terrorists murdering a police officer. But the chief medical examiner in Washington, D.C., has since confirmed that the officer died of natural causes.

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The Proud Boys undoubtedly encouraged people to trespass into the U.S. Capitol and behave badly. However, a melee in which they did not fire weapons, plant bombs, kill or kidnap people is hardly terrorism.

Indeed, the U.S. has not designated the Proud Boys as terrorists. It is remarkable that Canada would deem the Capitol riot as terrorist activity when the supposed target, the American government, does not. Yet the NDP has not revised its petition and, more importantly, the Canadian government has not revisited its designation.

Being listed under the Anti-Terrorism Act enables the government to freeze an organizations assets, imprison anyone who handles or contributes to its assets and prevent anyone associated with it from entering Canada.

This designation has apparently compelled Proud Boys Canada to disband. That may make some Canadians feel safer, but it may also drive former Proud Boys underground and radicalize them even further.

Because terrorism designations are so powerful, they should be applied cautiously, based on clear evidence of terrorist activity. If the bar is set so low that rioters who do not kill, kidnap or bomb are designated as terrorists, many activist and protest groups could be unjustly sanctioned. Misuse of the Anti-Terrorism Act is a far greater threat to Canadian democracy and freedom than the Proud Boys ever were.

Erin Weir is the former NDP MP for ReginaLewvan.

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The images and reports coming from Israel, Jerusalem and Gaza in recent days are shocking. They are also surprising to those who thought the 2020 Abraham Accords and subsequent agreements to normalize relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan would place the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians permanently on the backburner.As someone who has been writing and teaching about the Middle East for more than 30 years, I had no such illusions. The reason for this is that at its heart, the so-called Arab-Israeli conflict has always been about Israelis and Palestinians. And no matter how many treaties Israel signs with Arab states, it will remain so.In a phone call on May 12, President Joe Biden assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of his unwavering support for Israels security and for Israels legitimate right to defend itself and its people. Biden was referencing the rocket attacks on Israel launched by Hamas, the Islamist group that governs Gaza. By targeting civilians, Hamas is committing a war crime. In all probability, so is Israel, by bombing and shelling Gaza.Despite the carnage the Hamas rocket attacks and Israeli retaliation inflicts on Israelis and Gazans, the Biden administration is focusing on a sideshow, not the main event.That main event is an unprecedented conflict taking place on the streets of Jerusalem, Haifa, Lod and elsewhere. Its what scholars call an intercommunal conflict, pitting elements of Israels Jewish population against elements of Israels Palestinian population who have had enough and have taken to the streets.Hamas could not maintain its credibility as a movement if it sat by while Palestinians in Israel battled Jewish Israelis there. The reality is that Israel is having its Black Lives Matter moment.As in the United States, a brutalized minority group, facing systemic racism and discriminatory acts, has taken to the streets. And, as in the United States, the only way out starts with serious soul-searching on the part of the majority.But after the spate of Palestinian suicide bombings in the early 2000s that horrified Israelis and hardened their attitudes toward Palestinians, this is unlikely to occur.Many reasons, one sourcePalestinian anger can be attributed to multiple issues. In April, Israel attempted to impede access to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem for Palestinians living in the West Bank. Israeli police then raided the Muslim holy site, reportedly after Palestinians threw stones at them, injuring 330. At the beginning of May, Mahmoud Abbas, the current president of the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, cancelled the first Palestinian legislative elections in 15 years. Finally, when the current conflict spilled over into the West Bank, the Israeli occupation and continued colonization of Palestinian territory were thrown into the mix.These significant issues explain Palestinian anger. However, the intercommunal nature of the ongoing conflagration is due to two other issues.First, Jewish settlers attempted to evict eight Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency had settled the families in the neighborhood during the 1950s.Jewish settlers filed suit in 1972 claiming their right to the homes where those families lived. They argued that Jews had owned the Palestinians homes before the division of the city in the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. By right, they argue, the homes belong to their community.Jewish neighborhoods housing more than 215,000 encircle the predominantly Palestinian eastern part of Jerusalem, where Sheikh Jarrah is located. For Palestinians, the attempt to evict the families is representative of Israels overall policy of pushing them out of the city. It is not only a reminder that in a Jewish state Palestinians are second-class citizens, but a reenactment of the central tragedy in the Palestinian national memory: the Nakba of 1948, when 720,000 Palestinians fled their homes in what would become the state of Israel, becoming refugees.Growing anti-Arab racismThe second reason for the intercommunal nature of the current conflict is the emboldening of Israels extreme right-wing politicians and their followers. Among them are latter-day Kahanists, the followers of the late Meir Kahane. Kahane was an American rabbi who moved to Israel. Kahanes anti-Arab racism was so extreme that the United States listed the party he founded as a terrorist group. Kahane proposed paying Israels Palestinian population $40,000 each to leave Israel. If they refused, Israel should expel them, he argued.Kahanism and like-minded movements are on the rise in Israel. A Kahanist was recently elected to the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, and Netanyahu courted his support when the prime minister was attempting to form a government in February, 2019. Kahanists and other ultranationalist thugs the Proud Boys of Israel march through Palestinian-Israeli neighborhoods chanting Death to Arabs and assault them.The current crisis began on May 6, 2021. Pro-Palestinian protesters in Sheikh Jarrah had been breaking the Ramadan fast together each night of the holiday, a custom called iftar. On this particular night, Israeli settlers set up a table opposite them. In the settlers group was Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Kahanist deputy. Rocks and other objects began to fly. Then the violence spread.In the coastal city of Bat Yam, a Jewish mob marched down the street busting up Palestinian businesses, while another mob attempted to lynch a Palestinian driver. The same scene was replayed in Acre, only this time it was a Palestinian mob that assaulted a Jewish man. Another Palestinian mob burned a police station to the ground in the same city. And in a Tel Aviv suburb, a man presumed to be a Palestinian was pulled from his car and beaten.Lod is a city south of Tel Aviv with a mixed Palestinian and Jewish population. Not only was it the site of a Hamas missile strike that killed two Palestinians, it was where heavy fighting took place between Palestinian and Jewish mobs.The fighting began after a funeral of a Palestinian man who was killed by an assailant presumed to be Jewish. It was so heavy at times that the Israeli government brought in border guards from the West Bank to quell the unrest. The mayor characterized what was happening in his town as a civil war.The mayor also reminded the residents of Lod, The day after, we still have to live here together.He did not explain how this was to happen.

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Commentary: As the Palestinian minority takes to the streets, Israel is having its own Black Lives Matter moment - pressherald.com

A bitter and bruising Democratic primary for Philadelphia district attorney comes to a close Tuesday.

Incumbent DA Larry Krasner has spent his first term pushing to reform what he calls an unjust system, focusing on exonerating people wrongly convicted and reducing mass incarceration.

Challenger Carlos Vega, a longtime homicide prosecutor whom Krasner fired in 2018, has promised to continue reforms while returning to a more traditional approach to prosecution and collaboration with police. Vega and his allies in the local police union blame Krasner for surging homicides and gun crimes, which are roughly in line with national trends during the pandemic.

In heavily Democratic Philadelphia, Tuesdays winner is all but certain to win the November general election against lawyer Chuck Peruto, the only Republican candidate. Krasner is seen as the favorite to win the primary, but political watchers credit Vega with making it a competitive race.

READ MORE: The voters who will choose Phillys next DA arent the people with the most at stake

With voters heading to the polls if they havent already cast ballots by mail here are some factors that will help determine the winner.

Races for district attorney take place in off-year elections, which typically attract far fewer voters than contests for mayor, governor, Congress, or president.

So while the rhetoric has been fiery, the voters tuning into it likely make up a very small fraction of the electorate. Turnout in DAs races has been light in the past three decades, sometimes not even cracking 10%. Krasner prevailed in 2017 with 38% of the vote in a seven-candidate primary, but just under 20% of the citys Democrats cast a ballot.

In the 2017 primary, there were slightly more than 155,000 Democratic votes cast for district attorney. Its hard to predict what turnout will be this year following the expansion of mail voting roughly half of Philadelphias votes were cast by mail last year. But registered Democrats had returned about 47,000 mail ballots in the city as of Monday morning, which suggests extremely low turnout.

READ MORE: Philly elected Larry Krasner district attorney to reform the system. Heres what he did.

Campaign advertising, which can help mobilize voters, has also been notably light this year, especially considering the stakes. In 2017, a political action committee funded by billionaire George Soros spent almost $1.7 million to help Krasner win.

Krasner has been the biggest spender in this years race, shelling out almost $160,000 in television and radio ads, according to the advertising tracking firm AdImpact. Protect Our Police PAC, an anti-Krasner group founded last summer by retired cops, has spent almost $134,000 on TV ads. A related Soros group spent $90,000 in radio ads backing Krasner.

Vega put $30,000 into a last-minute radio ad touting his endorsement from former Gov. Ed Rendell, who served two terms as district attorney. He spent $366,000 mailing campaign literature to voters. But he did not air TV ads during the campaign.

The FOP encouraged Republican voters in the city to register as Democrats to support Vega in the primary. City data shows 6,252 Republicans switched over this year. Three out of every five party-flippers live in 14 wards in Northeast Philadelphia, where the FOP is based, and where Vega hopes to perform strongly.

But voters change parties for plenty of reasons. The city has more than one million voters, with 77% Democrats, 11% Republicans, and 12% independents or members of smaller political parties.

Krasner has been happy to highlight the FOPs opposition to his reelection. He frequently links Vega to the FOP, which had a friendly relationship with former President Donald Trump and connections to the Proud Boys, a self-described Western chauvinist organization designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. The FOP represents about 14,000 active and retired officers, although many no longer live in Philadelphia.

READ MORE: Carlos Vegas campaign to be Philly DA started in his moms bodega

Vega, in a radio debate with Krasner last week, predicted he will be at odds with the FOP many times if elected because he will push for reforms in city policing.

I am not owned by the FOP, he said.

But Krasner was still at it Friday as he accepted the endorsement of the Guardians Civic League, which represents 1,500 active and retired Black police officers. He criticized the FOP leadership, saying they cater to retired white officers who long for the days of Police Commissioner-turned Mayor Frank Rizzo.

They are a very diverse group of people, Krasner said of police. And many of them want what we all want, which is the system that is balanced and fair and just and that is not racist.

Results from far Northeast Philadelphia, the Delaware River Wards, and Girard Estates will show whether the FOPs efforts translated into votes.

Krasners promises of reforms in 2017 helped mobilize progressive voters still smarting from Pennsylvanias role in helping to elect Trump. With Trump now out of office, will that enthusiasm wane?

Progressive groups such as Reclaim Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Working Families Party say they are all in to defend Krasner, whose first victory was a watershed moment for their movement. But theres concern on the left that Trumps absence and the difficulty of generating enthusiasm for an incumbent with a complicated record will dampen their impact.

READ MORE: Larry Krasner has progressives in a new position: Defending a controversial incumbent

Even Reclaims endorsement of Krasner highlighted frustration with the pace of reform, praising the incumbents efforts to hold police accountable but saying he has failed to implement the transformative change needed to dismantle a fundamentally unjust and unequal system.

Krasner got some 11th-hour help from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), who endorsed Krasner in early May and sent out an email blast on Monday encouraging supporters to have his back when it matters most, to make sure he can continue our collective struggle for justice from the DAs office.

Turnout and Krasners margin of victory in neighborhoods such as Fishtown, Cedar Park, Center City, and parts of South Philadelphia east of Broad Street will show whether the progressive movement held its ground.

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What to watch for in the Democratic primary between Philly DA Larry Krasner and Carlos Vega - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Ethan Nordean, 30, is accused of leading and participating in the January 6 riot on the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC.

Nordean, who lives near Auburn, is a self-described Sergeant of Arms for the far-right extremist group, Proud Boys.

During a hearing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia via zoom Tuesday, prosecutors for the Department of Justice read aloud the multiple charges Nordean faces.

They include: conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, destruction of government property, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a restricted building or grounds, and aiding and abetting.

Nordean pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The Department of Justice says Nordean was a key figure in planning the riot and was close to the front of the crowd on January 6. Court documents say before the riot Nordean raised money online for body armor gear and radio communication equipment. Photos from that day allegedly show Nordean inside the Capitol Building.

Nordean could face more than 30 years in prison if convicted.

Three other defendants are involved in Nordeans case though only one appeared in court with him Tuesday. Joseph Biggs from Florida is seen in pictures with Nordean during the incident and is facing similar charges.

Nordean was a regular at far-right rallies around Seattle and Portland. Multiple videos on social media show Nordean fighting with other Proud Boys at political rallies. In summer 2020, he attended a Defend-SPD rally at Seattle City Hall.

Earlier this month a federal judge granted Nordeans request to be released from law enforcement custody pending his trial. He was ordered to spend most of his time at his home near Auburn and attended Tuesdays court hearing through zoom.

His next court date is set for April 1.

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Auburn-area Proud Boy arraigned in federal court for Capitol riot charges - KUOW News and Information

The leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, was not in Washington on Jan. 6. He had been arrested two days earlier and banned from the city by a local judge handling his case. Mr. Tarrio had been taken into custody in connection with the burning of a Black Lives Matter flag that was stolen by his group from a Black church after a Proud Boys rally in December.

According to the indictment, the arrest sent shock waves through the Proud Boys leadership. That same night, prosecutors say, Mr. Donohoe, in North Carolina, posted a message on one of groups encrypted channels saying, Everything is compromised and we can be looking at Gang charges. Mr. Donohoe, who goes by the nickname YutYut, took steps to nuke an earlier version of the groups encrypted channel and to create a new one, prosecutors say.

By Jan. 5, court papers say, the Proud Boys had settled on a channel called Boots on the Ground to communicate and more than 60 members joined it, including all four defendants in the new indictment and an unnamed co-conspirator. That person, prosecutors say, was the one who issued orders on the eve of the assault, telling his colleagues that Mr. Nordean would be in charge on the ground in the morning and that no one should wear their colors an apparent reference to the Proud Boys typical black-and-yellow polo shirts.

No one in the mob was wearing those colors when Mr. Nordean, carrying a bullhorn, joined Mr. Biggs and Mr. Rehl in leading the Proud Boys toward the Capitol at just before 1 p.m. on Jan. 6, crossing over barricades that had been violently disassembled and trampled by the crowd, the indictment says. Minutes later, prosecutors say, Mr. Donohoe helped part of the mob advance up a flight of stairs, overwhelming the police.

By 2:15 p.m., the indictment says, one Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola used a riot shield stolen from the police to break a window, allowing several other members of the group to enter the building.

Five minutes later, court papers say, a message flashed across Boots on the Ground.

We just stormed the Capitol, it said.

Original post:

Indictment Details Proud Boys' Group Chat Before Capitol ...

Four men described as leaders of the far-right Proud Boys have been charged in the US Capitol riot, as an indictment ordered unsealed on Friday presents fresh evidence of how federal officials believe group members planned and carried out a coordinated attack to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Bidens electoral victory.

Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs, two of the four defendants charged in the latest indictment, were arrested several weeks ago on separate but related charges. The new indictment also charges Zachary Rehl and Charles Donohoe.

Nordean, 30, of Auburn, Washington, was a Proud Boys chapter president and member of the groups national Elders Council. Biggs, 37, of Ormond Beach, Florida, is a self-described Proud Boys organiser. Rehl, 35, of Philadelphia, and Donohoe, 33, of North Carolina, serve as presidents of their local Proud Boys chapters, according to the indictment.

A lawyer for Biggs declined an Associated Press request for comment. Lawyers for the other three men did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Friday.

The riot led to the deaths of five, including one Capitol police officer.

So far, at least 19 leaders, members or associates of the Proud Boys have been charged in federal court with offences related to the riot. The latest indictment suggests the Proud Boys deployed a much larger contingent in DC, with more than 60 users participating in an encrypted messaging channel for group members that was created a day before the riots.

The Proud Boys abandoned an earlier channel and created the new Boots on the Ground channel after police arrested the groups top leader, Henry Enrique Tarrio.

Tarrio was arrested on January 4 and charged with vandalising a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church during a protest in December. He was ordered to stay out of DC.

People hold a sign reading Free Enrique in reference to Proud Boys leader Henry Enrique Tarrio on January 5, 2021, in Washington, the day before the deadly Capitol riot [File: Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo]Tarrio has not been charged in connection with the riots, but the latest indictment refers to him by his title as Proud Boys chairman.

Proud Boys members, who describe themselves as Western chauvinists, have frequently engaged in street fights with antifascist activists at rallies and protests.

The Proud Boys met at the Washington Monument around 10am local (around 2:00GMT) on January 6 and marched to the Capitol before then-President Donald Trump finished addressing thousands of supporters near the White House.

Approximately two hours later, just before Congress convened a joint session to certify the election results, a group of Proud Boys followed a crowd of people who breached barriers at a pedestrian entrance to the Capitol grounds, the indictment says. Several Proud Boys also entered the Capitol building itself after the mob smashed windows and forced open doors.

Prosecutors have said the Proud Boys arranged for members to communicate using specific frequencies on Baofeng radios. The Chinese-made devices can be programmed for use on hundreds of frequencies, making them difficult for outsiders to eavesdrop upon.

After Tarrios arrest, Donohoe expressed concern that their encrypted communications could be compromised when police searched the group chairmans phone, according to the new indictment. In a January 4 post on a newly created channel, Donohoe warned members that they could be looking at Gang charges and wrote, Stop everything immediately, the indictment said.

This comes from the top, he added.

A day before the riots, Biggs posted on the Boots on the Ground channel that the group had a plan for the night before and the day of the riots, according to the indictment.

In Nordeans case, a federal judge accused prosecutors of backtracking on their claims that he instructed Proud Boys members to split up into smaller groups and directed a strategic plan to breach the Capitol.

Thats a far cry from what I heard at the hearing today, US District Judge Beryl Howell said on March 3.

Howell concluded that Nordean was extensively involved in pre-planning for the events of January 6 and that he and other Proud Boys were clearly prepared for a violent confrontation that day. However, she said evidence that Nordean directed other Proud Boys members to break into the building is weak to say the least and ordered him freed from jail before trial.

A protester carries a Proud Boys banner, symbol of a right-wing group, while other members start to unfurl a large US flag in front of the Oregon State Capitol during a protest [File: Andrew Selsky/AP Photo]On Friday, Howell ordered Proud Boys member Christopher Worrell detained in federal custody pending trial on riot-related charges. Prosecutors said Worrell travelled to Washington and coordinated with Proud Boys leading up to the siege.

Wearing tactical gear and armed with a canister of pepper spray gel marketed as 67 times more powerful than hot sauce, Worrell advanced, shielded himself behind a wooden platform and other protestors, and discharged the gel at the line of officers, prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Defence lawyer John Pierce argued his client was not aiming at officers and was only there in the crowd to exercise his free speech rights.

Hes a veteran. He loves his country, Pierce said.

Original post:

Four Proud Boys leaders charged in relation to Capitol ...

The hearse carrying the remains of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick moves through two rows of saluting Capitol Police officers after his funeral service Wednesday, in Washington, D.C. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

Sicknick's remains are carried down the east front steps of the U.S. Capitol after lying in honor in the Capitol Rotunda. Pool Photo by Michael Reynolds/UPI | License Photo

From left to right, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., watch the departure ceremony. Pool Photo by Drew Angerer/UPI | License Photo

An honor guard carries the urn with Sicknick's remains down the steps of the U.S Capitol. Pool Photo by Alex Brandon/UPI | License Photo

Sicknick died from injuries sustained during the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

The Capitol Police honor guard arrives before Sicknick's remains leave the U.S. Capitol. Pool Photo by Drew Angerer/UPI | License Photo

A woman is comforted after attending the congressional ceremony for Sicknick. Pool Photo by Demetrius Freeman/UPI | License Photo

From left to right, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (L), D-Calif., Sen. Chuck Schumer (C), D-N.Y., and McConnell pause to pay their last respects. Pool Photo by Demetrius Freeman/UPI | License Photo

U.S. Capitol Police officers and other guests are seated around the remains of Sicknick, as he lies in honor in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. Pool Photo by Demetrius Freeman/UPI | License Photo

An officer holds a program for the ceremony. Pool Photo by Demetrius Freeman/UPI | License Photo

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser (R) attends the congressional ceremony memorializing Sicknick. Pool Photo by Demetrius Freeman/UPI | License Photo

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, pays his respects. Pool Photo by Anna Moneymaker/UPI | License Photo

Vice President Kamala Harris (R) and second gentleman Doug Emhoff pay respects. Pool Photo by Brendan Smialowski/UPI | License Photo

Fellow Capitol Police officers pay respects to Officer Brian Sicknick on Wednesday morning as his remains lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. Pool Photo by Anna Moneymaker/UPI | License Photo

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, pays his respects. Pool Photo by Carlos Barria/UPI | License Photo

Sicknick's remains are carried up the the east front steps of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday night. Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo/UPI | License Photo

President Joe Biden (L) and first lady Jill Biden pay their respects on Tuesday. Pool Photo by Erin Schaff/UPI | License Photo

Sicknick died Jan. 7 after engaging rioters a day earlier while protecting the Capitol. Pool Photo by Brendan Smialowski/UPI | License Photo

Sicknick is the fifth private civilian to lay in honor in the Capitol Rotunda. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

U.S. Capitol Hill Police officers wait for Sicknick's remains to arrive at the U.S. Capitol. Pool Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo

The Capitol Police Honor Cordon waits with a flag for Sicknick's family. Pool Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo

A member of Sicknick's family watches as his remains are carried up the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. Pool Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo

Members of the Capitol Police carry Sicknick's remains into the Rotunda. Pool Photo by Leah Millis/UPI | License Photo

Sicknick joined the Capitol Police in 2008. Pool Photo by Erin Schaff/UPI | License Photo

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (L), D-Calif., and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York pay their respects. Pool Photo by Erin Schaff/UPI | License Photo

An officer salutes for Sicknick. Pool Photo by Leah Millis/UPI | License Photo

Members of the Capitol Police pay their respects. Pool Photo by Leah Millis/UPI | License Photo

Sicknick lies in honor in the Rotunda. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

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4 Proud Boys conspired in deadly Capitol riot, new ...