Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio encouraged members not to 'turn on each other' and cooperate with feds in new leaked audio

• Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio told colleagues not to flip on each other in new leaked audio.
• Tarrio is jailed for burning a BLM banner taken from a church and bringing firearm magazines to DC.
• He asked his followers for donations just before turning himself in on Monday.

Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the right-wing extremist Proud Boys, told members in a newly-surfaced audio message that the group is trying to avoid its members cooperating with federal agents and turning on each other, according to Reuters.

In the message, sent to colleagues in July, Tarrio says, "we are trying to f---ing avoid" a predicament in which four senior members facing charges work with prosecutors and other members "turn on each other."

"We have got to support these guys a hundred and fucking fifty percent," Tarrio said in the message.

A DC Superior Court judge sentenced Tarrio to five months in prison in August for two charges: bringing high-capacity firearm magazines to Washington DC and for burning a Black Lives Matter flag stolen from a local church. Tarrio admitted guilt for the banner incident in July in an interview with Insider's Azmi Haroun and Haven Orecchio-Egresitz.

"It's pretty simple. I'm guilty," Tarrio said.

Tarrio's firearm charges occurred just two days before the violent riots at the US Capitol on January 6. Using a warrant stemming from the church incident, police searched Tarrio and found two large-capacity firearm magazines, an item prohibited in the district, emblazoned with the Proud Boys' insignia. He said he intended to give the ammunition feeder to a member of the group in town.

Authorities ultimately forbade Tarrio from being in Washington, DC, on January 6, but the leader of the Proud Boys still appeared to instruct the group online from afar. DC Police said Tarrio instructed his followers on Parler to wear all black to the January 6 protest instead of the group's customary black and yellow.

Four members of the Proud Boys - Ethan Nordean, Zach Rehl, Charles Donohoe, and Joseph Biggs - have also been charged with conspiracy to disrupt Congress' effort to certify the presidential election. At least 638 people in total have been charged in relation to the Capitol insurrection.