Can prosecutors use the Proud Boys to get to Roger Stone — and Trump?
This week, members of the far-right "Western Chauvinist" group the Proud Boys were convicted of seditious conspiracy for their role in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — a massive victory for federal prosecutors, who also recently won a similar case against the militia group the Oath Keepers.
But this could just be getting started. According to New York University law professor Ryan Goodman on CNN Thursday, these cases could be used to go after former President Donald Trump, using his associate Roger Stone as an intermediate step — but there are still a lot of unknowns.
"This hopefully sets up much stronger deterrent against the both anti-government extremists, in the case of the Oath Keepers, and the white supremacist paramilitary groups, in the case of the Proud Boys, that the Justice Department will be able to bring formidable charges against them, like seditious conspiracy," said Goodman.
"And they've already brought over 600 cases," said anchor Pamela Brown. "Prosecutors in this case described the Proud Boys as Donald Trump's army that was willing to do whatever it took to keep him in power. We also know that the chairman, Enrique Tarrio, had ties to Roger Stone. What could this mean for possible charges against Trump? What would prosecutors need to show?"
"So, there is this big question about whether or not prosecutors will be able to connect Trump to the violent assault on the Capitol," said Goodman. "I think there's a lot of information that they'll be able to connect to other efforts to overturn the election, pressure on Mike Pence, et cetera, but this is the key one, and we should recall that the January 6th Select Committee in the House made a criminal referral to the Justice Department, saying they had sufficient evidence that called for at least an investigation as to whether or not President Trump aided and abetted an insurrection. The fact that we have this verdict is important as a foundation to that kind of a claim. Once again, if there were an acquittal in the case, that would just go away. It would not really be on the table. It is on the table."
"So, the question is, in part, what you asked with Roger Stone: is there enough connective tissue?" Goodman continued. "Will they be able to connect dots if there are dots to be connected? Because Roger Stone is deeply involved with the Proud Boys. He even swore an oath to the Proud Boys, according to the January 6th committee."
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