Feds Zeroing In On Proud Boys Leadership

Canada’s House of Commons voted unanimously on Monday January 25, 2021, to classify the extremist far-right group Proud Boys as a white supremacist terrorist organization.  While it's a safe bet that Congressional Republicans would try to block any similar designation here in America - frighteningly, the GOP has become the party of white supremacy and Proud Boys are a part of the base of today's GOP - federal law enforcement agencies are working overtime to zero in on the hate group's leadership as well as that of Oath Keepers, another right wing extremist group.  One can only hope that if the groups preplanned the sacking of the U.S. Capitol and that Trump issued their call to arms evidence will be discovered to factor in Trump's impeachment trial.  The New York Times looks at the ongoing federal investigation:

The leadership of the Proud Boys has come under increased scrutiny as agents and prosecutors across the country try to determine how closely members of the far-right nationalist group communicated during the riot at the Capitol this month and to what extent they might have planned the assault in advance, according to federal law enforcement officials.

At least six members of the organization have been charged in connection with the riot, including one of its top-ranking leaders, Joseph Biggs. Mr. Biggs, a U.S. Army veteran, led about 100 men on an angry march from the site of President Donald J. Trump’s speech toward — and then into — the Capitol building.

The Proud Boys, who have a history of scuffling with left-wing antifascist activists, have long been some of Mr. Trump’s most vocal, and violent, supporters, and he has returned the favor, telling them during one of the presidential debates to “stand back and stand by.” Along with the right-wing militia the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys was one of the extremist groups with a large presence at the Capitol incursion, investigators said.

One of the organizers, Ethan Nordean, of Auburn, Wash., appeared with Mr. Biggs in a YouTube video on the day of Mr. Trump’s rally and can be seen shouting orders to a group of Proud Boys through a bullhorn. Mr. Nordean — also known as Rufio Panman, investigators said — is named in Mr. Biggs’s criminal complaint but has not been charged himself.

The second Proud Boy organizer, Eddie Block, of Madera, Calif., took video of Mr. Biggs and Mr. Nordean during the event in Washington, according to a photograph included in Mr. Biggs’s charging documents.

The F.B.I. has acknowledged it is conducting a similarly serious inquiry into the Oath Keepers, a group largely composed of law enforcement and military personnel, and the Three Percenters, which emerged from the extremist wing of the gun rights movement. Several members of both organizations have already been charged in connection with the Capitol attack, including three defendants who stand accused of the most severe conspiracy allegations leveled so far.

Investigators involved in the Capitol attack have also focused their attention on the chairman of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio. Mr. Tarrio, who lives in Miami, was scheduled to attend the march in Washington but was thrown out of the city by a judge the day before it happened. When he was arrested on Jan. 4 in connection with the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner that had been torn from a historic Black church during a different round of violent protests last month, police officers found he was carrying two high-capacity rifle magazines emblazoned with the Proud Boys’ chicken logo.

Prosecutors have noted in documents attached to Mr. Biggs’s case that Mr. Tarrio first began encouraging the Proud Boys to go to Washington for the “Stop the Steal” march in late December, when he posted a message on the social media app Parler announcing that members of the group would “turn out in record numbers.”

In the run-up to the rally, Mr. Tarrio also used Parler to urge his members to avoid wearing their traditional black-and-yellow polo shirts but instead to go “incognito” and move about the city in “smaller teams,” prosecutors say.

Investigators are continuing to sift through online posts and messages by Mr. Tarrio and Mr. Biggs in an effort to determine if they showed any attempt at coordination or planning, the federal law enforcement official said.

On the day of the attack, Mr. Tarrio took to Parler, calling members of the Proud Boys who took part in it “revolutionaries” and urging them not to leave. “For now, I’m enjoying the show,” he wrote, adding, “Do what must be done.”

While investigators are increasingly focused on people who may have preplanned the attack, any evidence that the assault was organized in advance could be a factor in Mr. Trump’s second impeachment trial, scheduled for next month. . . . evidence could end up showing that any pre-planned attack was inspired by weeks of the president’s insistence that the election was rigged.