Prosecutors thought Trump was in contact with Proud Boys leader before Jan. 6: report

Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader sentenced to 22 years in prison earlier this week in connection with Jan. 6, claims federal prosecutors offered him leniency if he could provide information implicating Donald Trump, The New York Times reports.

Tarrio, 39 of Miami, was found guilty in May of seditious conspiracy in connection with the attack on the Capitol.

Tarrio in an phone interview from a jail where he’s being held, told The Times that federal prosecutors contacted him in October and that during a subsequent meeting with him and his lawyer they told him they believed the former president had contacted him through at least three intermediaries ahead of the insurrection, The Times reports.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

But Alan Feuer writes for The Times that it’s not clear whether prosecutors had information to support their belief that Trump was communicating with the far-right group, or whether he was “fishing” for testimony.

The talks broke down after Tarrio told prosecutors that there were no such communications.

Feuer writes that Tarrio’s characterization of the exchange “suggests that prosecutors took extraordinary steps in seeking out evidence of ties between Mr. Trump and the Proud Boys, the far-right group that was instrumental to the violence that erupted at the Capitol. To have approached Mr. Tarrio soon before his trial in search of information that could implicate the former president shows the government’s interest in connections between Mr. Trump and the extremists at the center of the riot."

Read the article here.