Ex-Proud Boys leader pardoned by Trump arrested at the Capitol—again
Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the white supremacist Proud Boys group whom President Donald Trump pardoned for his crime of helping plan the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, was rearrested ...
Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the white supremacist Proud Boys group whom President Donald Trump pardoned for his crime of helping plan the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, was rearrested at the Capitol on Friday for assaulting a protester, Politico's Kyle Cheney reported.
Tarrio—who was serving a 22-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy before Trump released him from prison—was at the Capitol on Friday with a group of other pardoned Jan. 6 thugs, including right-wing militia leader Stewart Rhodes and Richard "Bigo" Barnett, the classless loser who put his feet up on a desk in then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.
The men were outside of the building they once helped desecrate, chanting “Whose house? Our house," Cheney reported.
According to multiple reports, Tarrio was arrested after he knocked a phone out of the hands of a counterprotester on the Capitol grounds.
One video from the scene shows the moment Tarrio knocked the phone out of a woman’s hands.
Another video of the arrest shows Tarrio chanting “ow” as law enforcement put him in handcuffs before loading him into a police van.
Tarrio now joins the esteemed list of pardoned Jan. 6 criminals who have been rearrested after their release, including one who was wanted for charges of online solicitation of a minor.
Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson telling him that Tarrio and the other pardoned Jan. 6 insurrectionists pose a risk to the safety of the people working at and visiting the Capitol, and that they should be banned from the complex.
“Two masterminds of January 6th, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, returned to the Capitol complex today, raising significant questions about their intentions, including potential plans for retribution,” Connolly wrote. “As the Speaker of the House, your office has a duty to ensure the protection and physical safety of your colleagues, as well as the staff and employees of the House of Representatives.”
Connolly added that Johnson should “take meaningful action by acknowledging and condemning the violence that occurred on January 6th and assure our colleagues, staff, and the American public that those who sought to overthrow our government are not welcomed back to the Capitol through an open front door.”
Ultimately, pardoning Jan. 6 rioters is one of the most unpopular things Trump has done in his first month in office.
An Ipsos poll for The Washington Post released Thursday found that 55% of Americans oppose Trump's pardon of nonviolent insurrectionists. And 83% do not support his pardon of insurrectionists who were convicted of or pleaded guilty to violent crimes.
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