The Proud Boys leader, who was arrested in Washington shortly before the Capitol rebellion, previously worked in disguise and cooperated with investigators after being accused of fraud in 2012, court documents show.
Henry “Enrique” Tarrio helped law enforcement in a variety of investigations for almost a decade, providing information and acting in disguise, the records show.
The Proud Boys are a chauvinist extremist chauvinist extreme right-wing group that clung to the policies of the Trump administration and were a major agitator during previous protests and the Capitol riot on January 6. The Proud Boys protested a “deep state” and are working to break the current system of government, so Tarrio’s revelations as a federal informant came as a big surprise.
The details of Tarrio’s cooperation, which was first reported on Wednesday by Reuters, were found in a transcript of a 2014 hearing in a federal court in Florida regarding his sentence for participating in a scheme involving the resale of test strips for diabetics.
Tarrio’s prosecutor and defense attorney cited Tarrio’s broad cooperation to argue that his 30-month sentence should be reduced. The judge agreed to reduce his sentence to 16 months, the case file shows.
“Your Honor, frankly, in all these years, which are now more than 30 years, I have never had a client so prolific in terms of cooperation in any aspect,” said Tarrio’s lawyer at the time, Jeffrey Feiler, the transcript.
An email asking for comments was not immediately returned from a lawyer who represented Tarrio in his current case. In an interview with Reuters, Tarrio denied having cooperated with the authorities.
After Tarrio’s prosecution in 2012, he helped the government prosecute more than a dozen others, the federal prosecutor told the judge, according to the transcript. Tarrio’s lawyer said he was the first defendant to cooperate in the case and was also involved in a series of covert police operations involving things like anabolic steroids and prescription drugs.
“From the first day, he was the one who wanted to talk to the police, wanted to clear his name, wanted to fix this so he could move on with his life. And he did cooperate significantly, ”said the prosecutor, according to the transcript.
Tarrio was arrested in Washington on January 4, two days before the pro-Trump crowd invaded the Capitol in an attempt to overthrow President Joe Biden’s victory.
He was accused of vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church during a previous protest in the country’s capital. The strip was torn from the property of the Asbury United Methodist Church, torn and burned in December.
Tarrio was seen with the video of the incident sign posted on YouTube, according to police reports. When the police stopped Tarrio, the officers found two magazines unloaded with the Proud Boys logo in his bag, which had a capacity for 30 shots each, officials said.
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Richer reported from Boston. Associated Press reporter Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Florida contributed to this report.