Ex-Proud Boys leader to be sentenced for role in US Capitol attack

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A former chairman of the right-wing Proud Boys group is set to be sentenced on Tuesday for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump trying to overturn his election defeat.

Enrique Tarrio was convicted of charges, including seditious conspiracy, for his role in planning the storming of the Capitol, when thousands of supporters of the Republican then-U.S. president violently tried to stop Congress from certifying the results of an election that Trump falsely claimed had widespread fraud.

Federal prosecutors have asked U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly to impose a 33-year prison sentence on Tarrio, who was not present at the Capitol on the day of the violence because another judge had ordered him to stay out of Washington. Prosecutors said he helped direct the attack from Baltimore.

Tarrio’s attorneys have asked for a substantially shorter sentence. Kelly last week sentenced another far-right Proud Boys leader, Ethan Nordean, to 18 years, less than the 27 years prosecutors had sought. That prison term tied the longest handed down so far to a convicted leader of the attack, with Oath Keepers militia founder Stewart Rhodes in May also sentenced to 18 years.

More than 1,100 people have been arrested on charges related to the Capitol assault, and of those at least 630 have pleaded guilty and at least 110 have been convicted at trial. Five people, including a police officer, died during or shortly after the riot and more than 140 police officers were injured. The Capitol suffered millions of dollars in damage.

Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was tapped to investigate broader efforts to overturn the 2020 election, has since charged Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, for trying to keep himself in power.

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Aurora Ellis)