- Ex-Proud Boys chair Enrique Tarrio wants a judge to set $1 million bail in his conspiracy case.
- Tarrio is a gainfully employed family man who wasn't at the Capitol on Jan. 6, his lawyer argues.
- The feds contend that even from his Baltimore hotel room, Tarrio led the group's attack that day.
Ex-Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio should be freed on a $1 million bond pending the resolution of his Capitol attack conspiracy case, his lawyer argued in new court papers filed in District Court in DC.
Tarrio — jailed since March 7 for allegedly orchestrating the extremist group's attack — will even stop using the Internet if released to home confinement, the papers say.
The group's then-national chairman had relied on social media in encouraging the insurrection, prosecutors have alleged, posting "Do what must be done, #WeThePeople," and "Don't fucking leave," on his social media as the attack transpired.
In asking Monday night that Tarrio be released pending trial, defense lawyer Nayib Hassan stressed that his client wasn't even at the Capitol that day.
"He did not assault or harass anyone," on Jan. 6, 2021, the papers argue. "He did not commit any acts of violence. He did not enter the US Capitol."
The only evidence against him are his "statements," the papers say, adding, "Mr. Tarrio in no way instructed nor encouraged anyone to go into the Capitol or to act in a violent or destructive manner."
That claim would be disputed by federal prosecutors, who have argued in court filings that for months, Tarrio planned and encouraged the attack.
"Fit in or fuck off," he instructed any would-be stragglers, the feds allege.
Tarrio, who has bounced around from jails in Miami, Tallahassee, Atlanta and Oklahoma since his arrest, is requesting home confinement with a GPS monitoring bracelet.
"Additionally, Mr. Tarrio would agree not to use any computer, tablet, smart phone, or any device that could allow internet access," the papers promise.
During a March 15 detention hearing, a magistrate judge had found Tarrio was not a risk of flight "due to his ties to the community in South Florida and the fact that many members of his family were present in the court," the filing noted.
The magistrate, Judge Lauren Louis, instead focused on prosecutors' allegation that when he helped lead the Proud Boys' attack on the Capitol, Tarrio was out on bond in another case. Tarrio had admittedly burned a Black Lives Matter banner in DC, a crime he pleaded guilty to and served time for.
Tarrio also tried to destroy or conceal evidence on his phone, Louis had noted in ordering Tarrio be held without bail, finding "that there were no conditions that would reasonably assure the safety of the community" if he were freed.
There was so much encryption on Tarrio's phone, it took the feds a year to crack into it, using specialists from the FBI crime lab at Quantico, prosecutors have said.
In countering that Tarrio is not a danger, his papers point to a CNN interview Tarrio gave in February, in which he repeatedly said he did not support the attack on the Capitol.
The papers do not mention that Tarrio also said in that interview that members of Congress got what they deserved that day. Also in the CNN interview, Tarrio refused to condemn those that attacked the Capitol, and he mused that he, too, may have done the same if he had been there at the time.
Prosecutors must next file opposition papers to Tarrio being released.
The judge handling the case — in which Tarrio and four others are charged with conspiring in the January 6 attack — recently accepted a cooperation plea deal by co-defendant Charles Donohoe.
A trial for Tarrio and four remaining alleged Proud Boy co-conspirators had been set for May 18, but will now be scheduled for a later, yet-determined date.