Proud Boys leaders' best defense is to claim they were 'angry knuckleheads': legal expert

According to a top criminal defense attorney, there is a wealth of evidence that will likely put the leadership of the far-right Proud Boys in prison for years and their best possible argument is to plead that they are "not bright" enough to pull off an insurrection.

In a report on the trial of Proud Boy head Enrique Tarrio, who has been accused of seditious conspiracy by prosecutors, the Guardian's Victoria Bikeimpis wrote jury selection is ongoing, and legal observers are wondering what kind of defense strategy his attorneys will attempt.

According to her report, "Tarrio and his co-defendants in the Washington DC federal court trial – Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, Dominic Pezzola and Proud Boy organizer Joe Biggs – are charged with seditious conspiracy and other counts related to the attack that delayed congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election victory, injured dozens of police officers and is linked to multiple deaths. They have all pleaded not guilty to the charges."

Noting that, "Tarrio was not in Washington DC during the insurrection, as he had been arrested two days prior for allegedly vandalizing a Black Lives Matter sign at a historical Black church during a December 2020 demonstration. Prosecutors contend that Tarrio was among the leaders of this conspiracy to thwart election certification," the report adds, "While there appears to be extensive evidence against these men, much of which has long been in the public record, prosecutors must show more than their in-person or social media presence that day to prove seditious conspiracy."

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Defense attorney Ron Kuby, a specialist in civil rights cases, said such cases are hard to prove, but in this case, "There’s a tsunami of evidence, both in terms of what was said among the participants, which the FBI has obtained and decrypted as well as what they did, which is all well-documented on video.”

Asked how he would approach their defense, Kuby continued, “These guys were angry knuckleheads but you know, they’re not planning to overthrow the government.”

He then added a caveat.

"The natural impulse of every defense lawyer is to portray their clients in a fashion which is most likely to result in acquittal, but that’s not necessarily the way most defendants want to be portrayed,” he told the Guardian. “The Proud Boys may not want to be portrayed as loud-mouthed knuckleheads who were just egging each other on to say dumber and dumber things because they’re not that bright.”

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