Attorneys for former longtime Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and some of his co-defendants condemned their indictment on the historically rare charge of seditious conspiracy this week as politically orchestrated to coincide with the start of televised hearings Thursday by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Hours before committee officials expected lawmakers to gavel in the prime-time proceedings focusing on the actions of the Proud Boys and a documentary filmmaker who accompanied them that day, attorneys for Tarrio and some of his four deputies accused the Justice Department of playing politics with the case, a contention U.S. prosecutors and a judge appointed by President Donald Trump rejected during a hearing at a federal courthouse blocks away in Washington.
“Mixing politics and criminal justice is dangerous, and we have to run from it like fire,” said David Smith, an attorney for Proud Boys defendant Ethan Nordean of Seattle. “But when you look at the timing of the government’s indictment … when the charges could have been brought, and what is coming from the Capitol this week, there is no doubt what is happening, and it’s un-American, Judge,” Smith said.
Tarrio attorney Nayib Hassan agreed, writing in a court filing Wednesday that the new 10-count indictment against the group alleged almost no new facts, and “suspiciously seems orchestrated at the highest levels of government” to coincide with House hearings.
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