Proud Boys’ convictions exacerbate Donald Trump’s legal peril: legal expert

A legal expert believes the conviction of four members of the Proud Boys, including the far-right group’s leader, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, of seditious conspiracy over a plot to keep Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election, has implications for the former president.

Former federal prosecutor Dennis Aftergut writes in an opinion piece for MSNBC that the jury on Thursday was the third to convict in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol as an “organized, violent uprising meant to overturn the 2020 election” means that “in courtrooms it’s now established beyond a reasonable doubt that the Capitol siege was not spontaneous, but rather a planned assault by force on our democracy.”

Aftergut contends that the convictions add to Trump’s legal troubles, noting that impact of the former president’s “callout” during a 2020 debate in which the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.”

Aftergut writes: “The effect of that callout to the militants became visible to the nation on Jan. 6, and again to the jury here. At trial, the government introduced a message from one Proud Boy who wrote right after the debate that ‘Donald has given us a command.’"

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“Prosecutors also introduced the group’s messages suggesting that some coordinationwith the White House may have occurred before Jan. 6.”

Aftergut believes that the convictions “are sure to bolster federal prosecutors in Washington and local prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, who are considering charges against former President Donald Trump in connection with events before and during Jan. 6.

“Conversely, any other trial outcome would have emboldened the nation’s militia movement and congressional firebrands like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Green and Jim Jordan.”

Aftergut notes that so far “Jordan’s attempts as House Judiciary Committee chair to attack prosecutors and the FBI have flopped.”

He argues that had the Proud Boys been acquitted “those previous political stunts would have looked like warmup acts for future theatrics alleging the Justice Department was prosecuting innocent Americans.”

Aftergut contends that the most recent convictions clear the way for the prosecution of those who gave the rioters their marching orders.

“With these latest foot soldiers’ convictions, the baton now passes to special counsel Jack Smith and to Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis to complete the task by bringing accountability to the very top,” Aftergut writes.

“History has been made. There is more to come.”