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Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio’s defense attorneys and U.S. prosecutors released a 22-minute video on Tuesday recording his movements in Washington, DC, on the eve of the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack. , including his meeting in an underground car park with Stewart Rhodes, founder of the extremist group Oath Keepers.
The existence of the video and the interest of FBI and House investigators in it have been reported earlier, including in Tarrio’s indictment in March for conspiring to attack Congress that day, but clips from the recording had not been made public.
They show Tarrio smoking cigarettes, saying he is worried about being stopped by police and wanting to leave town, but waiting in the Hall of the States garage near Capitol Hill to shake hands and talk to Rhodes and Rhodes’ lawyer. Also present at the garage meeting were leaders of two pro-Trump right-wing groups: Joshua Macias, a speaker scheduled for the next day, and Bianca Gracia, organizer of January 6 events with links to the White House.
“I feel like a fugitive,” Tarrio says as he is taken underground to avoid being seen on the street, according to the video. “I will stay close [to D.C.] just to make sure mine is okay, tomorrow. I have a lot to do tomorrow, ”he added.
The video was recorded by a team of documentaries integrated with the Proud Boys and released six clips: one for the government and five for the defense. The video begins with Tarrio’s release from DC prison. Tarrio had been arrested days earlier by DC police for an independent incident: the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner stolen from a DC church in December 2020 following a different pro-Trump rally, and ordered out of town before pleading guilty and serving a four-month jail term earlier this year.
The new videos were released by U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly in Tarrio’s ongoing effort to secure bail in his separate Jan. 6-related separate trial. The move comes at a delicate time in the case, as the trial date set for Aug. 8 could be escaping for Tarrio and four alleged co-defendants as his top lieutenants.
On Tuesday, Kelly came out of a closed-door hearing saying that co-defendant Dominic J. Pezzola, who pleaded not guilty to breaking the first window of the Capitol with a stolen police riot shield, wanted to change his mind. ‘lawyer. The prosecution has wanted Tarrio and Pezzola to be tried along with the others, citing their respective “central” and “final” roles in the case.
Separately, prosecutors have said they can charge several additional defendants, add charges or do both in Tarrio’s case, based in part on his additional devices that were confiscated in March. But the deadline on Friday when prosecutors said they planned to act passed without incident. A U.S. attorney general declined to comment Tuesday on whether that meant there were no additional charges, citing the secrecy of grand jury matters.
Proud Boys leader for many years, Enrique Tarrio, accused of conspiracy in the January 6 attack on the Capitol
In Tarrio’s indictment, prosecutors noted his meeting with Rhodes and other people “known and unknown to the grand jury,” adding that during the 30-minute meeting, “one participant referred to the Capitol.” Prosecutor Jason McCullough said the video showed Tarrio “impatient” to restore secure communications and “command and control” of the men he had selected who spoke of “assaulting the Capitol.”
At a May 18 bail hearing, Tarrio’s lawyer, Nayib Hassan, said the video shows that it was an associate and not Tarrio who asked to return to the hotel, and that Tarrio stumbled upon Rhodes while looking for a lawyer to represent him.
“I just need to talk to her. This guy has a good lawyer, and he was a 2A [Second Amendment] the lawyer who took out this guy, “Tarrio says in front of the camera as he enters the garage, without giving further details.
Rhodes has pleaded not guilty to a separate charge of conspiring with members of his group to forcefully oppose President Biden’s inauguration.
Analysis | Who did the Oath Keepers call on January 6 as they tried to reach Trump?
The video shows an associate greeting Tarrio as he recovers his police effects. The woman, a photographer who follows the Proud Boys, calls to arrange an urgent meeting with Rhodes’ friend Kellye SoRelle, a lawyer for the Oath Keepers, who happened to be staying at the same Phoenix Park Hotel as the photographer. Tarrio proposes that they meet in person.
While Tarrio appeared in front of the camera in both Rhodes and SoRelle, the camera crew was told to walk away and did not capture the audio of any substantial discussion between Oath Keepers and Proud Boys officials. in publicly posted clips.
The video captures more conversations between Tarrio and the leaders of two other pro-Trump right-wing groups: Macias, co-founder of Vets for Trump, and Gracia, a former friend of Tarrio and head of Trump’s Latinos, a January 6 event . organizer.
Hours before the incident of the burning of the flag on December 12, Tarrio, who also served as chief of staff for Trump’s Latinos, Gracia and other members of the group visited the White House. A White House spokesman later described the visit as a public visit and said Tarrio did not meet with President Donald Trump. Gracia previously posted a photo on Tarrio’s social media meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend and campaign advisor Kimberly Guilfoyle.
In the video of January 5, Gràcia insists that Tarrio’s presence is necessary the next day and tries to give him letters with cords – “You must be here tomorrow” – before repeatedly warning that his communications with them will be they must be kept secret by law. -execution.
Gracia said she and her group’s vice president had removed Tarrio from an unspecified text message chain, believing her phone had been compromised by police during her arrest because someone else had been texting Tarrio. and receiving “verification marks as if you were reading it, and we knew it. It wasn’t you.”
“I’ve removed you for now, because I didn’t know if they were downloading s — or whatever.… Ozzy says you get a new SIM card and you can get a new phone before you contact anyone,” Gracia said, apparently referring to Ozzy Pérez-Cerezal, a Latino vice president of Trump and a member of a Miami Proud Boys chapter founded by Tarrio.
Tarrio said police retained his phone and laptop, but assured Gracia that the latter did not contain potentially sensitive information and that the former was “deleted” from sensitive content before his arrest or not. could access without two-step verification. He explained that he was under court order to leave the city, but intended to spend the night in Maryland, where “there are many of mine” before driving home to Miami, and confirmed: “I have a lot to do. tomorrow”.
“I need a communication device. … I can sign in with my phone on your phone and write it down,” Tarrio says in some of his first comments to the photographer in an initial video sequence. When he was taken to Maryland later that night and shortly before the video ended, he repeated to the photographer, “I need access to my Telegram, so I need your phone.”
It was not immediately clear whether the published video clips contained the basis of the accusation that a participant made a reference to the Capitol. A clip made after Tarrio asked for space to talk to SoRelle participants memories that spoke within reach of Tarrio’s conversation, even though his words were inaudible. In the second group, whose faces were not shown, a woman refers to “the great recovery” and adds, “I need Trump to do the right thing.” A man who accompanied Rhodes to the meeting responds: “What will happen is inevitable. We just have to do it as a team together, strong, hard and fast. “