- Court documents detail the planning of weeks by members of the Proud Boys before January 6.
- Members of the far-right group were instructed to dress “incognito” and separate to avoid detection.
- Before the siege, members discussed their hopes of freeing “normies” or non-Proud Boys on the Capitol.
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While Donald Trump delivered his now infamous speech to supporters on the afternoon of January 6, members of the far-right white nationalist group, the Proud Boys, were not among the thousands of pro-Trump protesters listening in the crowd, according to new court documents. .
The Proud Boys had already left for the United States Capitol building. They arrived on the east side of the building before noon – more than an hour before Trump finished a speech that would later lead to accusations of incitement.
While most Trump supporters in DC that day were listening to the incendiary words of the departing president, the Proud Boys, wearing dark colors, strategically positioned themselves across the Capitol campus to avoid detection, prosecutors say.
They “were not present in any part of the speech, because listening to the speech was not in their plans”, state the legal documents.
Members of the neo-fascist group spent months raising funds and planning the group’s participation in the attack on the Capitol, according to a request for pre-trial detention made on Monday to one of the organization’s leaders, Ethan Nordean.
Court documents detail how the group, without its leader Enrique Tarrio – who was arrested in Washington days before the siege – empowered new members, including Nordean.
Local and national leader of the Seattle-based Proud Boys, Nordean was reportedly appointed by other members to have “powers of war” and to assume “the final leadership of the Proud Boys’ activities on January 6, 2021.”
As early as November 4, Nordean and other Proud Boys leaders turned to social media in anger at the election, which they believed had been stolen, and encouraged the Proud Boys and Proud Boys supporters to join the group to prevent certification of the Electoral College results, said the filing.
“We tried to play well and by the rules, now you will deal with the monster you created. The spirit of 1776 has resurfaced and created groups like the Proudboys and we will not be extinguished. We will grow as the flame that feeds us and spreads as the love that We are unstoppable, relentless and now … relentless, “Nordean posted on November 27.
Nordean also used his followers on social media to encourage his supporters to donate money, tactical vests and other military-style equipment that Proud Boys members could use in the January 6 attack. During the weeks leading up to the siege, Nordean communicated with several individuals who said they could provide funds, protective equipment and even bring apples to the group.
On the morning of January 6, the Proud Boys gathered at the Washington Monument carrying Baofeng radios – devices made by a Chinese communications equipment manufacturer that are known to be more difficult to monitor or listen to than ordinary walkie talkies. The night before, members were instructed to wear ordinary clothes and avoid the colors typically used by the Proud Boys.
Nordean, dressed all in black and wearing a tactical vest, instructed his companions on how to use encrypted communications and the military-style equipment they had acquired. He then issued specific orders: “divide into groups, try to break into the Capitol building from as many different points as possible and prevent the Joint Congressional Session from Certifying the results of the Electoral College,” said prosecutors.
When they arrived at the Capitol building, the Proud Boys did exactly as they had been instructed. Spread across the campus in droves, members of the organization – along with a growing number of other pro-Trump protesters – forced their way through Capitol Police officers and metal barriers.
It was a proud boy – Dominic Pezzola – who broke a window with a riot shield that he had taken from an officer that day. Pezzola was held in solitary confinement 23 hours a day pending his trial, Politico said. He is part of the growing number of Capitol rioters arrested that day who publicly blamed Trump for his participation in the siege.
According to court documents, prior to the attack, certain Proud Boys had discussed their hope of freeing the “normies”, or non-Proud Boys, on January 6, “to incite them and inspire them to ‘burn that city in ashes today, ‘and’ crush some pigs into dust ‘. “
In the process, prosecutors argue that Nordean poses a serious flight risk and danger to the community. Allowing release before the trial, they argue, would allow him to plan, raise funds, equip and lead a group in another attack, a danger that is “unfortunately, very real”.
When the authorities executed a search warrant against Nordean, they found a valid US passport issued to someone who looked like Nordean, the suit said, but none for Nordean himself. Prosecutors said Nordean’s explanation for the document’s existence in his home was “absurd”.
Nordean told agents that his wife kept her ex-boyfriend’s passport as a souvenir and brought the document to the home she now shared with Nordean, where she “by chance” kept the souvenir with her own passport on the side of Nordean’s bed . .