Later this week, much of our nation will likely be glued to their television sets, as the January 6th select committee holds their first televised public hearings regarding the events of that fateful day.
And, during these hearings, it appears likely that we’ll be learning a great deal of “new” and previously “unknown” information about the attack.
Case in point: The recent adjustment to the charges made against the leaders of the Proud Boys group.
The leader of the far-right Proud Boys and four of the group’s members have been charged with seditious conspiracy stemming from their alleged planning for and participation in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Enrique Tarrio, along with codefendants Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola, are accused of conspiring to use force to oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power “by preventing, hindering, or delaying by force the execution of the laws governing the transfer of power,” according to a grand jury indictment filed Monday.
The five men were previously indicted on charges of conspiracy and pleaded not guilty. Monday’s indictment adds the even more serious “seditious” element to the counts, although many of the details in the new indictment had previously been alleged in the initial conspiracy charges.
The claims were wild.
According to the indictment, in December 2020, Tarrio and the Proud Boys members conspired to obstruct and stop the counting of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6. An unnamed individual sent Tarrio a document entitled “1776 RETURNS,” which described a plan to occupy multiple buildings in Washington, D.C., including congressional office buildings.
During Thursday’s hearing, one witness will be a documentarian who was working with the Proud Boys in the days leading up to January 6th, and it is likely that their testimony will add another later to this developing story.
