The leaders of the Proud Boys planned to use their members to violently stop Congress from certifying the 2020 election for Democrat Joe Biden, prosecutors said in the opening argument in the trial of the group’s leaders, the first time the Justice Department has acknowledged in court an organized pre-planned plot to attack the Capitol, the Washington Post reports.
In their 90-minute opening statement, prosecutors used the defendants’ own videos, photos and messages to layout the planning Enrique Tarrio, the group’s foreman chair, and the four other defendants undertook to make sure their members led others into the building.
Defense attorneys made a compelling argument, but not one that excuses their clients’ criminal actions. “President Trump told these people that the election was stolen. … He’s the one who unleashed that mob at the Capitol on January 6th,” Tarrio’s attorney Sabino Jauregui said, adding that it would be an “injustice” to hold the defendants culpable but allowing Trump to carry on without being held accountable for his own actions.