Enrique Tarrio, Proud Boys leader, to stand trial for conspiring to stop peaceful transfer of power

Jury selection began Monday for the weeks-long January trial of Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio and some of his top lieutenants in the group.

Government prosecutors will attempt to convince a jury that the Proud Boy members' actions prior to the January 6 Capitol breach are worthy of a conviction on the harshest count resulting thus far from the Justice Department's investigation.

In addition to Tarrio, who has remained jailed on the order of a US Magistrate Judge in Miami leading up to the trial, former Proud Boys members Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, Joseph Biggs and Dominic Pezzola are facing charges.

Federal prosecutors will argue that the Proud Boys members violently provoked law enforcement officials and led the effort to break into the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.

Enrique Tarrio (pictured in 2019) is on trial alongside his former Proud Boys members, though he was not physically at the Capitol on January 6

Zachary Rehl (front) poses for a selfie during the Capitol breach flashing the 'OK' hand gesture that is now commonly affiliated with white supremacists

The government indictment alleges that the leaders of the Proud Boys gathered with more than 100 members of the group close to the Washington Monument on January 6, just around the time President Donald Trump was speaking to a crowd at the White House Ellipse.

They then, according to the government, marched to the Capitol grounds, where a member of the mob who is not charged in this case bypassed the police line effectively beginning the invasion of the Capitol.

Nordean, Rehl, Biggs and Pezzola - each of whom have been charged with several felonies including seditious conspiracy - stand accused of leading the invading mob. 

According to court documents, it was Biggs - a former InfoWars staffer - who stood on the Capitol's west front and said, 'We've taken the Capitol.'

Pezzola, meanwhile, is accused of grabbing an officer's riot shield and using it to shatter a window on the Senate side of the building.

Tarrio is charged alongside the others, though he was not actually in Washington, DC at the time of the breach. He remains accused of assisting with the planning of the effort and celebrating its success.

According to the government, Tarrio allegedly discussed 'revolutions' and 'storming' the Capitol complex prior to January 6, but was arrested upon entry into the capital on January 5, 2021 for a prior offense of burning the Black Lives Matter flag and on several weapons charges.

Pictured is Ethan Nordean climbing through a Capitol window, a Proud Boys member on trial for seditious conspiracy, among other charges, for his role in the January 6 Capitol breach

Proud Boys organizer and former InfoWars staffer, is pictured in Washington, DC. He is accused of standing on the Capitol's west front steps and declaring 'We've taken the Capitol'

Tarrio's absence from the Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021 did not stop prosecutors from charging him with the same crimes as the other Proud Boys. The fact of his absence will likely be raised by his defense. 

Each man has pleaded not guilty to charges that include obstruction of Congress' work and impeding law enforcement.

Defense attorneys have also tried and failed to move the trial out of the nation's capital. They tried and succeeded to delay the trial while the January 6 Committee hearings were still publicly taking place. 

The House committee's final hearing took place today and ended with the criminal referral of the former president, his attorney and several others to the DOJ.

Biggs' attorneys recently told CBS that the 'Rules of Professional Conduct prohibit lawyers from making extrajudicial pretrial comments on the eve of trial. We wish the same applied to Congress.'

They argued that the forthcoming release of the January 6 Committee's report could sway potential jurors in the case. 'Shame on Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney,' they added, referencing the committee heads.

Attorney Steven Metcalf (center) arrives at the courthouse as he prepares to defend Proud Boys member Dominic Pezzola, who is accused of seditious conspiracy, among other things

Nayib Hassan (left), who is defending Enrique Tarrio, arrives at court for jury selection on Monday ahead of the January trial that is expected to take weeks

Nayib Hassan, Tarrio's attorney, said his client is 'looking forward to the start of the trial.'

'We look forward to making our presentation of the evidence and acquitting Mr. Tarrio of the government's allegations,' he said. 

The government, whose charges the defense have argued are vague and overly broad, have pointed to the planning of the Proud Boys' descent on Washington, which they say began on December 20, 2020 - one day after then-President Trump announced his January 6 rally.

As jury selection takes place for the Proud Bous defendants, a second jury heard testimony during the the trial of a second set of Oath Keepers (another Right Wing group) members.

Earlier in December, the DOJ convicted two former Oath Keepers of charges pertaining to January 6.