Proud Boys deny plot to overthrow government as Jan. 6 trial nears end

A federal grand jury is scheduled Monday to hear closing arguments in the seditious conspiracy trial against Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and several of his associates — and the members of the extremist group are standing by their claim that the January 6 attack was not a plot to overthrow the U.S. government, reported CBS News.

"Tarrio is one of the top targets of the Justice Department’s investigation of the riot that erupted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress prepared to certify Joe Biden's presidential election victory over Trump. Tarrio wasn’t in Washington, D.C., that day but is accused of orchestrating an attack from afar," CBS reported.

The Proud Boys are a far-right self-styled "Western Chauvinist" group notorious for their violent street brawls with political opponents.

"The foundation of the government's case is a trove of messages that Proud Boys leaders and members privately exchanged in encrypted chats — and publicly posted on social media — before, during and after the Jan. 6 attack," said the report.

"The messages show Proud Boys celebrating when Trump, a Republican, told the group to 'stand back and stand by' during his first debate with Biden, a Democrat. After the 2020 election, they discussed plans to travel to Washington for Trump's 'Stop the Steal' rally on Jan. 6. And they raged online for weeks about baseless claims of a stolen election and what would happen when Biden took office. 'If Biden steals this election, (the Proud Boys) will be political prisoners,' Tarrio posted on Nov. 16, 2020. 'We won’t go quietly ... I promise.'"

The Proud Boys have denied that any of this amounted to sedition, or that there was any intent to overthrow the government.

"Defense attorneys have vigorously argued that there was no conspiracy and that the Proud Boys had no plan to attack the Capitol. And two key prosecution witnesses — onetime Proud Boys cooperating with the government — both acknowledged that they didn’t know of any such plan," said the report. "The defense attorneys called several current and former Proud Boys to the stand, trying to portray the group as a drinking club that only engaged in violence for self-defense against antifascist activists."

This comes as the government has secured seditious conspiracy convictions against another far-right group that participated in the January 6 attack, the paramilitary ex-military and police group the Oath Keepers.