Proud Boys trial : Police testify to ‘dire’ scene on Jan 6 as far-right group faces sedition charges

Among the issues delaying opening arguments in the high-profile Proud Boys trial involves lawyers for defendant Joseph Biggs.

One of his attorneys, Dan Hull, had previously represented Enrique Tarrio in his interactions with the House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol. He also was set to represent another Proud Boy, Jeremy Bertino, who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy in October.

Now, Bertino is expected to be a key government witness in this trial.

Another lawyer for Mr Biggs, Norm Pattis, had previously defended conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in a defamation case brought by parents of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

He was effectively barred from this trial after he was suspended from practising law in his home state for six months.

Mr Pattis previously called his client’s case a “righteous fight” when he joined in June. Justice Department attorneys have tried to keep him out of the Proud Boys trial.

“Defendant Biggs has a right to choose his counsel, but that right is not unbounded,” attorneys for the Justice Department wrote in a filing on 9 January. “Just as a defendant has no Sixth Amendment right to ‘choose’ a counsel he cannot afford, a defendant has no right to ‘choose’ a counsel that does not have a license to practice law.”

Mr Pattis had offered to withdraw from the case but Judge Timothy Kelly has paused the idea while conflicts of interest issues are sorted out with Mr Biggs’s other attorney.

Jurors have been sworn in after entering US District Court before opening arguments from prosecutors with the US Department of Justice.

“I know this is a process that has taken some time and involved a lot of waiting around for you all,” Judge Timothy Kelly told the jury.

The Independent’s Graig Graziosi is in Washington DC for the proceedings.

A map of the US Capitol and and signage used to keep people off the grounds were photographed being carried into federal court on Thursday as prosecutors prepared to deliver opening statements in the seditious conspiracy trial against five members of the far-right nationalist gang the Proud Boys.

US District Judge Timothy Kelly and jurors have returned to the courtroom to begin opening arguments.

Assistant US Attorney Jason McCullough will deliver arguments on behalf of the government’s case against the five Proud Boys on trial for seditious conspiracy.

In opening remarks, Assistant US Attorney Jason McCullough said members of the Proud Boys “took aim at the heart of our democracy” on January 6, as members breached the halls of Congress after months of discussing an alleged attack.

“They did not stand back. They did not stand by,” he said, referencing Donald Trump’s remarks to the group in a presidential debate in September of 2020.

“They mobilised,” he said.

“The transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden was stopped at the hand of these defendants,” Mr McCullough added. “And before they realised how much trouble they were in, they celebrated their group’s accomplishments.“

He added that former leader Enrique Tarrio told members “make no mistake, we did this” as federal prosecutors previewed various text messages used as evidence to prosecute the defendants.

When Donald Trump refused to condemn the Proud Boys during a presidential debate in September of 2020, “in that moment ... battle lines were drawn,” according to Assistant US Attorney Jason McCullough.

“You heard President Trump say ‘somebody has to do something about antifa.’ In that moment, battle lines were drawn,” said Mr McCullough, adding that the moment signalled to members that “Trump was for the Proud Boys and Biden was for antifa.”

Here’s our report from the immediate aftermath of that moment:

Assistant US Attorney Jason McCullough – in a reference to Enrique Tarrio calling his lieutenants “lords of war” –said that “these lords of war joined together to stop the transfer of presidential power”.

Prosecutors played video of defendant Joe Biggs saying “we’re probably gonna have a civil war now.”

The next day, he posted “it’s time for f***ing war if they steal this s***”.

Federal prosecutors have amassed dozens of messages from members of the Proud Boys as evidence in their seditious conspiracy trial, including several social media posts and messages calling for “war” and rallying members to “kill them all” in the wake of the 2020 presidential eleciton.

Two days before the January 6 insurrection, now-former Proud Boys chair Enrique Tarrio was arrested by Washington DC police moments after stepping off a plane from Miami.

He was wanted by police after he admitted to tearing down and burning a Black Lives Matter flag outside a historically Black church in the nation’s capital during December riots connected to a protest supporting Donald Trump’s bogus claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.

“The arrest of Enrique Tarrio enraged these defendants,” according to Assistant US Attorney Jason McCullough.

His arrest, law enforcement actions in the wake of November and December protests and riots, and Trump’s “be wild” tweet motivated Proud Boys into action for January 6, according to prosecutors.

“The time for standing back and standing by was over,” Mr McCullough added. “It was time to mobilise.”

The purpose of returning to the nation’s capitol after “Stop the Steal” rallies “was clear,” he added.

“They were coming to stop Congress rom certifying the election from Joe Biden,” Mr McCullough said. “As Enrique Tarrio explained in his post on 1 January, ‘lets bring in the new year with one word in mind. Revolt.’”

One of Enrique Tarrio’s so-called “Ministry of Self Defence” recruits openly pondered on 4 January what the police would do if they stormed the Capitol, two days before the attack.

“What would they do if 1 million patriots stormed and took the [Capitol] building. Shoot into the crowd? I think not,” the recruit’s text said, according to Assistant US Attorney Jason McCullough.