- The Jan 6 committee is focusing its attention on the role extremist groups played in the riot.
- Leaders and members of the
Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have been charged with seditious conspiracy.
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Leaders and multiple members of both the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have been arrested and charged with seditious conspiracy, a
Proud Boys former leader Enrique Tarrio, as well as four other group members—Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola—were charged with seditious conspiracy in June. Federal prosecutors allege they worked together in an orchestrated plot to help prevent the certification of electoral votes in the 2020 election. Authorities had already previously charged and detained the same members on other charges related to the Capitol riot.
The Proud Boys, originally formed in 2016 by Vice cofounder and far-right commentator Gavin McInnes, is a large far-right movement with chapters in 46 US states, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The group has become notorious for disrupting public events and promoting misogynistic, anti-LGBTQ, xenophobic, and hypermasculine rhetoric. A group of people suspected to be Proud Boys members were recently pepper sprayed after attempting to disturb a drag show event at a bar in California in late June.
When is the Proud Boys' trial?
The seditious conspiracy trial against members of the Proud Boys was initially set to take place in early August, but the defendants successfully requested the federal judge to delay it until December—arguing that the January 6 committee's findings and presentation of evidence could sway the jury unfairly against them. Federal prosecutors agreed with delaying the trial, saying the added time to look over the January 6 committee's findings could be relevant in assessing the case.
Multiple Proud Boys members who are not part of the group of five charged with conspiracy have also been arrested, and in some cases already pleaded guilty to charges related to the Capitol riot. One was Joshua Pruitt, a 40-year-old who came close to Senator Chuck Schumer's security detail when he stormed the Capitol.
When is the Oath Keepers ' trial?
A slew of Oath Keepers members, including the group's founder Stewart Rhodes, have also been charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the Capitol riot. Authorities have charged at least 25 Oath Keepers associates with crimes related to the Capitol storming, according to the ADL, which describes the group as an anti-government extremist movement with a focus on recruiting members from the military and law enforcement.
Rhodes created the Oath Keepers in 2009, and the group currently has around 1,000 to 3,000 active members, the ADL estimates.
A number of the group's members have already pleaded guilty to the charge. These include the leader of the organization's North Carolina sect, who allegedly communicated about plans for January 6 in late 2020 on Signal and threw his cell phone into the Atlantic Ocean to conceal evidence after the Riot, according to a Department of Justice release.
The Oath Keepers' trial is scheduled for late September. The defendants will likely seek to convince the jury that they were lawfully at the Capitol because they were invited to be rally security, and because they were waiting for Trump to issue the Insurrection Act and turn them into a Trump-supporting federal militia, which an expert previously told Insider is an outlandish justification.
Although the Proud Boys head Tarrio was not at the Capitol riot, federal prosecutors allege he met up with Rhodes and other associated people in a parking garage before January 6.
During Tuesday's hearing, the House committee will draw connections between members of the Trump administration and the extremist groups that allegedly participated in and helped orchestrate the Riot to outline how the two sides worked together, California Rep. Zoe Lofgren told CNN.
Meanwhile, the January 6 hearings have already unveiled significant developments and claims about Trump's role in the Capitol insurrection. One of the most explosive testimonies came from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who made an array of dramatic allegations against Trump, including that he had known that some fans at his rally were armed and that he lunged at a Secret Service agent while in the presidential vehicle after he was blocked from going to the Capitol following his speech contesting the election.