WASHINGTON — Members of the Proud Boys road gang who rioted on the Capitol and have been set free of jail by President Donald Trump staged a triumphant return to the Capitol on Friday.
After their celebration, the Capitol Police arrested Enrique Tarrio, a onetime chief of the group, over an altercation with a protester.
A police spokesperson stated officers witnessed the protester put her telephone in Tarrio’s face whereas they have been strolling away from the Capitol.
“Then the officers witnessed [Tarrio] strike the girl’s telephone and arm,” the spokesperson stated. “The girl instructed our officers that she needed to be a complainant, and [Tarrio] was arrested for the easy assault.”
Tarrio and several other different members of the Proud Boys, in addition to members of the Oath Keepers militia, have been despatched to jail for seditious conspiracy and different crimes associated to the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol. Trump commuted their sentences throughout his first days in workplace, as a part of his sweeping clemency for greater than 1,600 rioters.
Tarrio and some dozen different freed Jan. 6 rioters left the Capitol grounds on Friday following a reunion of kinds they’d organized to rejoice their launch. They introduced a lawsuit towards the Justice Division and falsely claimed the federal government provoked the riot.
“We won’t enable the federal government to rewrite historical past. We won’t enable them to regulate the narrative. We won’t stand idly by,” Tarrio stated, including that the go well with could be funded by proceeds from a Proud Boys-themed crypto token.
A handful of protesters with bullhorns tried to disrupt the occasion and continued heckling the group as they walked towards Union Station. A video from the scene reveals a part of a confrontation with Tarrio through which he throws a protester’s telephone.
