“'It was Donald Trump’s words. It was his motivation. It was his anger that caused what occurred on January 6th in your amazing and beautiful city,' said Nayib Hassan, Tarrio’s lawyer, during closing arguments in a seditious conspiracy trial stemming from the Jan. 6 attack.
Hassan leaned heavily into the role Trump played in ginning up the crowd at his rally the morning of Jan. 6, just minutes before rioters began breaching police barricades at the Capitol. Trump urged his supporters to 'fight like hell' just 36 minutes before the first wave of the mob charged at police, Hassan noted.
'It was not Enrique Tarrio. They want to use Enrique Tarrio as a scapegoat for Donald Trump and those in power,' Hassan said." (our emphasis)
Prosecutors have laid out the case that the Proud Boys saw the Malignant Loser as key to their survival in the future, and his defeat as a fatal blow to their vision of an authoritarian America under him:
"Prosecutors say the leaders, loyal to Trump and fearful of the Proud Boys’ survival in a post-Trump America, devised plans to keep Trump in office. And throughout the four-month trial, the Justice Department repeatedly emphasized how Tarrio and the Proud Boys keyed off and drew energy from Trump’s own bid to subvert the 2020 election. The group’s plan went into overdrive, prosecutors said, after Trump’s Dec. 19, 2020 tweet calling on supporters to descend on Washington on Jan. 6, 2021 to challenge the election results." (our emphasis)
The fascist nimrods were jacked up like little fanboys by the Malignant Loser's call for them to "stand back and stand by" during a September 2020 Presidential debate, even incorporating the slogan on their patches and shirts. Now they face years in prison on nine counts felony counts (defendant Dominic Pezzola faces an additional robbery charge) as they watch their cult leader campaign for President.
(photo: Tarrio holding cult leader's sign)
