A pardoned Jan. 6 conspirator says President Donald Trump rescued him after Britain barred him from U.K. airspace.
Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the far-right Proud Boys, made the claim in a post on X early Tuesday, writing that he was “finally on my way back home.”
British Airways had refused to fly him out of Warsaw a day earlier, after Britain’s Home Office denied the airline permission to carry him, according to a notice Tarrio shared on X.
“Thank you to the Trump administration for helping me last night. I’ll keep your names off of here but I am grateful for all your help!” Tarrio wrote.
Tarrio did not say who helped him or what they did.
“The UK has banned me from entering their country. I can’t even land to switch planes… But it didn’t end there. I am now stuck in Warsaw because @British_Airways has an ‘issue’ with me flying,” Tarrio wrote Monday.
He said he had missed two flights, had been away from home for two weeks, and was not warned in advance. In the same post, he asked the U.S. ambassador to Poland for help.
The notice did not say why he was barred. It cited the Authority to Carry Scheme 2023, which a Home Office minister described to Parliament in 2023 as “in effect, the UK’s ‘no fly’ scheme.”
The minister, Lord Murray of Blidworth, said the scheme was meant to stop people “including known terrorists, serious criminals and those subject to sanctions” from traveling to or from Britain.
“Transit passengers are included in the scope of the scheme, not least because they may seek to enter the United Kingdom while they are in transit,” Lord Murray said.
Airlines that carry a passenger after the Home Office refuses permission can be fined up to £50,000 per passenger, according to the scheme’s rules.
Tarrio was convicted in 2023 of seditious conspiracy, a charge of plotting to oppose the government’s authority by force, for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, NBC News reported.
His 22-year prison sentence was the longest given to any Capitol riot defendant, though he was not in Washington that day, the outlet reported.
Trump pardoned him in January 2025, along with about 1,500 other people charged or convicted in the Capitol attack, Scripps News reported. The pardon did not erase the conviction.
Tarrio told The Detail, a Belfast news outlet, in August that Britain granted him an electronic travel permit in November 2025 and that he had visited several times since.
The outlet reported that he toured Belfast after riots in June and met with right-wing and pro-British loyalist activists. A local human rights group questioned why he was allowed in, and the Home Office declined to comment.
On Monday, Tarrio also responded to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who had announced that his party would shut down Britain’s asylum system if it won power.
“Will you let in one more brown dude? Kinda need it now,” Tarrio wrote.
“God Bless the J6ers. The persecution and oppression continues,” wrote John M. Cameron, whose X profile describes him as a pardoned Jan. 6 participant, in a post sharing Tarrio’s complaint.
Later Tuesday, an X user mocked Tarrio for being stranded and suggested Trump would not help him.
“You might have missed my latest tweet. The President always comes through…b—,” Tarrio replied.