The Proud Boys’ Group Chat Is Haunting Their Jan. 6 Trial

Washington, D.C.—“Oops, looks like we stormed the Capitol.” “Fucking do it man, let’s go.” 

U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough showed these incriminating messages and voice memos to jurors Thursday as part of the government’s opening statements in the high-profile seditious conspiracy case against five prominent Proud Boys for their actions on Jan. 6, 2021. Top-ranking Proud Boys had sent the notes to an exclusive group chat, in real-time during the violent riot that day, and much of the prosecutions’ argument to prove the rare felony will rest on the members’ own words. 

“You will see private communications, you will see their public statements, you will see their coordinated actions, you will see their celebration of the group’s activities, and an attempt to cover their tracks, " McCullough said. “You will know by the way they took direct aim at the electoral college certification that this was the result of an agreement.” 

The far-right street fighting gang’s “chairman” Enrique Tarrio is among the defendants, as are leaders Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, and Zachary Rehl. Dominic Pezzola, a Proud Boy from Rochester, New York, who was seen in video smashing the windows of the Capitol, is also facing charges. 

Sitting in the federal courthouse less than half-a-mile from the Capitol, they resembled a rogues’ gallery—only instead of their infamous uniform of black-and-gold polo shirts, they wore smart suits and ties. And now they’re each facing 20 years in prison for seditious conspiracy. 

“Led by Enrique Tarrio, these men joined together and agreed to use any means necessary, including force, to stop Congress from certifying the election,” McCullough said, gesturing toward the defendants. “On Jan. 6, they took aim at the heart of our democracy.” 

McCullough said that Tarrio believed that Biden’s presidency would be bad news for the Proud Boys. “If Biden steals this election, the Proud Boys will be political prisoners,” Tarrio wrote in November. “We won’t go quietly. I promise.”

McCullough also traced the Proud Boys’ movements on Jan. 6. He showed one clip of an apparent recruit to this alleged conspiracy ask Nordean if they were “going to fucking do it.” “What?” he replies. “Go check out the Capitol,” the man replies. 

Nordean is seen looking around, before responding “yeah.” 

The exclusive chat that the crux of the government’s argument appears to rely upon was a private Telegram group for a special Proud Boy chapter, formed by Tarrio on Dec. 29, called “Ministry of Self Defense”—or “MOSD,” where hand-picked members used encrypted messages to allegedly plan and brag about the riot on Jan. 6. 

Snippets from some of those messages have trickled out in court documents. But now the jury is being shown what prosecutors couldn’t include in previous filings, like audio messages and short video notes, shared before, during, and after the Capitol riot. 

Tarrio, who was not present at the Capitol on Jan. 6 because he was ordered by a judge to stay away from D.C., appeared to take credit for the riot at 2.30 p.m., approximately 15 minutes after rioters overwhelmed police and breached the Capitol. “Make no mistake, we did this,” he wrote in the “Ministry of Self Defense” chat.

An apparently inebriated Nordean posted a video that evening celebrating the day’s events. “I was part of fucking storming the Capitol of the most powerful country in the fucking world,” Nordean said. “If you’re gonna lecture me on what’s important right now, shut the fuck up.” 

“I’m proud as fuck at what we accomplished yesterday,” Rehl wrote. “We lost our country, we shoulda held the Capitol.”

McCullough also showed jurors incendiary posts and clips between the 2020 election and Jan 6, which he said showed how the Proud Boys were primed for violence when they believed Trump would lose. 

“We’re probably going to have a civil war now,” said Biggs. Rehl discussed the need for “firing squads for the traitors that are trying to steal this election from the American people.” 

McCullough specifically zeroed in on the military-style structure of the “Ministry of Self Defense” that he said was in play on Jan. 6, showing jurors a hand-drawn diagram to explain the individual ranks and roles of the defendants. 

At the time, Tarrio was the leader of the gang and tapped Nordean as his second-in-command. Biggs, a former army sergeant, also held a prominent leadership role. Rehl was made an operational leader, and he was responsible for organizing “men and equipment as they prepared to return to Jan. 6,” McCullough said. Pezzola, who joined the Proud Boys in Nov. 2020 and was considered a “rising star” in the gang, according to McCullough, and was “recruited” into this special chapter. 

Proud Boys Jeremy Bertino and Charles Donohoe, who have both pleaded guilty already, were put in regional leadership roles. Bertino will testify against the Proud Boys in this trial. Donohoe may testify as well.

McCullough showed a private message between Tarrio and Biggs the day before the formation of the so-called Ministry of Self Defense. “Let’s get radical and get real,” Biggs wrote. “No one looks at us from our side and sees a drinking club. They see men who stand up and fight.” 

McCullough, in his opening statement, appeared to buttress against possible future claims by defense lawyers that the purpose of the “Ministry of Defense” was not to organize Jan 6, but to instead to plan revenge against “Antifa” after four Proud Boys were stabbed during a protest in D.C. in December. He claimed that the name of the special chapter was a bit of subterfuge by Tarrio.

“Enrique Tarrio was a master at creating the public perception that put himself and his men in the best possible light,” said McCullough. “The purpose of MOSD was not to unleash a can of whoopass against antifa.” 

Some of the defendants’ posts on social media were evidence of that, McCullough said. “Let’s begin this new year with one word in mind: revolt,” Tarrio wrote. 

“Every lawmaker who breaks their own stupid fucking laws should be dragged out of office and hung,” Biggs wrote on Jan 2. “The government should fear the people, not the other way around.” 

Tarrio’s mother, Zuny Duarte, sat in federal court Thursday, along with several characters who’ve become mainstays of Jan. 6 trials, including Nicole Reffit (whose husband, Guy Reffit was sentenced to seven years behind bars for the Capitol riot), Micki Witthoeft (the mother of Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by police during the riot), and Randi Ireland, former head of a Proud Boy chapter in New York. Ireland and Reffit both carried stationary emblazoned with Proud Boy insignia on it. Ireland told VICE News that he plans to be in the courtroom every day and called it the “trial of the century,” claiming it was a proxy ideological war between “capitalism and socialism.” 

An arduous jury selection process, potential conflicts of interest plus other dramas, had delayed opening arguments for weeks. Biggs’ lawyer, for example, was almost hired by Jeremy Bertino, a former Proud Boy who’s now one of the government’s key witnesses. 

Jurors will be tasked with deciding whether the five defendants are guilty of seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to impede officers of the United States, and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. They’re also facing charges of obstruction of official proceeding, interference with law enforcement during civil disorder, destruction of property, and assault. Pezzola is facing an additional charge of robbery for stealing a police officer’s riot shield. 

Dan Hull, who is representing Biggs, told VICE News by the soup stand in the federal courthouse’s cafeteria that there were a few elements of the government’s opening statements that were a “surprise” but overall thought that prosecutors did a good job setting out the timeline of the events of Jan. 6.

Rehl’s lawyer Carmen Hernandezm, who has emerged as a colorful character and a tough-fighting attorney,  was much less generous with her thoughts. She immediately moved for a mistrial following the government’s opening statements. She claimed that the government’s argument was “inflammatory” and that it contained “misleading allegations.” 

Judge Timothy Kelly denied the motion.

Correction 1/13: Due to editor error, the charges that Proud Boys Jeremy Bertino and Charles Donohoe had pleaded guilty to were listed incorrect. The text has been updated, and we regret the error.

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