Washington —
Five members the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, are on trial in Washington for seditious conspiracy in connection with the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
The defendants are accused of plotting and coordinating the bloody rampage in an attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power from then-President Donald Trump to Joe Biden, the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
If convicted, the defendants could face up to 20 years in prison.
The trial, now in its fourth month, is also a critical test of the government's resolve to pursue the rarely used seditious conspiracy charge against those who planned and directed the attack.
In two earlier cases, juries convicted Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and a top lieutenant of seditious conspiracy in November, and found four other members of the anti-government militia guilty of the charge in January.
"The stakes are every bit as high in this case," said Jordan Strauss, a former federal prosecutor, now a managing director at Kroll, a New York-based corporate investigation and risk consulting company.
It remains unclear how the jury will judge the Proud Boys case. The trial is nearing a conclusion as the defense wraps up its case and the jury begins deliberations.
A conviction would mark a significant victory for the U.S. Justice Department as it continues to hunt down the perpetrators of the attack two years later.
Here are several questions about the case:
The Proud Boys are a right-wing extremist group that emerged during the 2016 presidential election.
They describe themselves as a "pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world; aka Western Chauvinists."
However, extremism researchers say that public persona is a smokescreen.
In reality, they say, the group harbors a violent agenda and promotes misogyny, Islamophobia, transphobia and anti-immigration sentiment.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, the Proud Boys have been "regulars" at Trump rallies and far-right demonstrations, including the 2017 Unite the Right Rally where one counter-protester was killed.
Former FBI special agent Tom O'Connor compared the Proud Boys to thuggish "soccer hooligans" of the extreme right, in contrast to the Oath Keepers who fancy themselves as "the special forces of the far right."
The Proud Boys were thrust into the spotlight during the 2020 presidential campaign when Trump, speaking during a presidential debate, exhorted: "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by!"
A Congressional committee investigating the January 6 riot at the Capitol singled out the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers as two of several extremist groups that spearheaded the assault.
Along with Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the Proud Boys, the group includes three local ring leaders – Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean and Zachary Rehl.
The fifth defendant, Dominic Pezzola, is a former Marine from Rochester, New York, who joined the Proud Boys after the 2020 election.
Pezzola became the face of the January 6 attack when he was filmed using a stolen police riot shield to smash a window, clearing the way for a mob of rioters to storm the building.
The Proud Boys face a total of nine charges, including seditious conspiracy.
Federal law defines seditious conspiracy as a plot to use force to "overthrow," "oppose" the authority of the government or "prevent" the execution of its laws.
The indictment against the defendants alleges that they conspired to ‘"oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power by force."
In addition to seditious conspiracy, the five men are charged with conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, destroying government property, assaulting a federal office, and other charges.
Pezolla faces an additional robbery charge.
Prosecutors say the Proud Boys viewed a Biden presidency as an existential threat and were determined to stop him from taking office, even by force if necessary.
To back up their claim, prosecutors offered a trove of evidence, including social media posts, texts, emails, and phone calls exchanged by the Proud Boys in the run-up to January 6, 2021.
As early as November 16, less than two weeks after the election, Tarrio posted an ominous message online.
"If Biden steals this election," Tarrio wrote, the Proud Boys "will be political prisoners. We won't go quietly … I promise."
Jeremy Bertino, one of two ex-Proud Boys to testify against them, told the jury that the group believed "they had to take the reins" and lead the people to "all out revolution."