(PatriotWise.com) — On Tuesday, a District Court judge sentenced former leader of the Proud Boys Enrique Tarrio to 22 years for his role in orchestrating a plot to keep Donald Trump in office, the Associated Press reported.
Tarrio, 39, pleaded for leniency before US District Judge Timothy Kelly handed down the longest sentence yet for a January 6 defendant, exceeding the 18-year sentences given to former Proud Boy leader Ethan Nordean and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.
Speaking at his sentencing, Tarrio described the January 6 riot as a “national embarrassment” and apologized to the lawmakers at the Capitol that day and to the police. He told the court that he was finished with politics and insisted that he had not intended to change the results of the 2020 election.
Tarrio pleaded for mercy, asking the judge not to take his 40s from him.
Judge Kelly, a Trump appointee, said Tarrio’s “revolutionary zeal” led to “200 men, amped up for battle,” surrounding the Capitol. Unmoved by Tarrio’s pleas, the judge noted that he had never shown remorse for his crimes before and said a harsh penalty was needed to ensure that such political violence never happened again.
Prosecutors had requested a 33-year sentence for Tarrio, whom they described as the ringleader in a plot to use violence to overturn the election.
Prosecutor Conor Mulroe told the court that the plot came close to succeeding and the country could have woken up on January 7 “in a full-blown constitutional crisis” with Americans not knowing who the next president was.
Despite Tarrio not being in Washington on January 6, 2021, prosecutors insisted that the Miami resident organized the Proud Boys’ actions from afar.
Tarrio’s lawyers denied that the Proud Boys plotted to attack the Capitol or stop the certification of the election. They argued that Tarrio was being used as a scapegoat for Donald Trump, who urged his supporters to “fight like hell.”
Tarrio’s attorney, Nayib Hassan, told reporters after sentencing that they planned to appeal.
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