By Aaron Miller-
The far rights proud boys group is likely to disintegrate after 19 of its leaders have been charged for offences in the U.S capitol riot on January 6.
New charges against four men described as leaders of the far-right Proud Boys group have been brought, as an indictment ordered on Friday presented fresh evidence of the strategic and co-ordinated attack to stop Congress certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory was executed.
The proud boys, like any organisation, requires leadership and organisation to thrive, but the extreme right group’s leaders are being taken down one by one. Replacing the strategic planning and organisation at the top will be difficult, especially as the FBI will ne paying close attention to the group.
Significant members or associates of the neo-fascist Proud Boys have now been charged in federal court with offenses related to the 6 January riot, which resulted in five deaths.
The latest indictment accuses the Proud Boys of inciting a large contingent of over 60 users “participating in” an encrypted messaging channel for group members created a day before.
The Proud Boys innovated and creating the new Boots on the Ground channel after police arrested the group’s leader, Enrique Tarrio, in Washington. Tarrio was arrested on 4 January and charged with vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church during a protest in December. He was ordered to stay out of the District of Columbia.
Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs, two of the four defendants charged in the latest indictment, were arrested several weeks ago on separate but related charges. The new indictment also charges Zachary Rehl and Charles Donohoe.
All four defendants are charged with conspiring to impede certification of the electoral college vote. Other charges in the indictment include obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, and disorderly conduct. The offenders are likely to b sentenced to a long jail term.
Nordean, 30, of Auburn, Washington, was a Proud Boys chapter president and member of the group’s national Elders Council. Biggs, 37, of Ormond Beach, Florida, is a self-described Proud Boys organizer. Rehl, 35, of Philadelphia, and Donohoe, 33, of North Carolina, are presidents of local Proud Boys chapters, according to the indictment.
Proud Boys members, who describe themselves as a politically incorrect men’s club for “western chauvinists”, have engaged in street fights with antifascist activists at rallies and protests.
Meeting
The Proud Boys met at the Washington Monument around 10am on 6 January and marched to the Capitol before then president Donald Trump finished addressing thousands of supporters near the White House.
Around two hours later, just before Congress convened a joint session to certify the election results, a group of Proud Boys followed a crowd who breached barriers at a pedestrian entrance to the Capitol grounds, the indictment says. Several Proud Boys entered the Capitol building after the mob smashed windows and forced open doors.
At 3.38pm, Donohoe announced on the “Boots on the Ground” channel that he and others were “regrouping with a second force” as some rioters began to leave the Capitol, according to the indictment.
“This was not simply a march. This was an incredible attack on our institutions of government,” assistant US attorney Jason McCullough said in a recent hearing for Nordean’s case.
Baofeng Radios
Prosecutors have said the Proud Boys arranged for members to communicate using Baofeng radios. The Chinese-made devices are capable of being programmed for use on hundreds of frequencies, making them difficult for outsiders to eavesdrop.
After Tarrio’s arrest, Donohoe expressed concern that encrypted communications could be “compromised” when police searched the group chairman’s phone, according to the new indictment. In a 4 January post on a newly created channel, Donohoe warned members that they could be “looking at Gang charges” and wrote, “Stop everything immediately,” the indictment says.
“This comes from the top,” he added.
Plan
A day before the riots, Biggs posted on the Boots on the Ground channel that the group had a “plan” for the night before and the day of the riots, according to the indictment.
A federal judge accused prosecutors of revising their claims that Nordean instructed Proud Boys members to split up into smaller groups and directed a “strategic plan” to breach the Capitol.
Pre-Planning
Judge Howell concluded that Nordean was extensively involved in “pre-planning” for the events of 6 January and that he and other Proud Boys “were clearly prepared for a violent confrontation”. However, she said evidence that Nordean directed other Proud Boys members to break into the building is “weak to say the least” and ordered him freed from jail before trial.
The judge ordered Proud Boys member Christopher Worrell to be detained in federal custody pending trial on riot-related charges.
Prosecutors allege Worrell travelled to Washington and coordinated with Proud Boys leading up to the siege.
“Wearing tactical gear and armed with a canister of pepper spray gel marketed as 67 times more powerful than hot sauce, Worrell advanced, shielded himself behind a wooden platform and other protestors and discharged the gel at the line of officers,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.