By Contributing Writer
Boooooy, former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio has been having a rough go of it ever since he became a publicly known figure as the head of the MAGA sausage party loyalists. Since we’ve known Tarrio’s name, he’s been given a five-month prison sentence for lynching a Black Lives Matter banner that was taken from a Black church in Washington, D.C.; he’s begged a judge to grant him early release because he was “deathly afraid” of being harmed in jail; he has admitted that the Proud Boys were broke boys and he had to result to printing Black Lives Matter T-shirts to make money; he’s been outed as a Tekashi 6ix9ine-like snitch; and earlier this year, he and three other Proud Boys were convicted of a plot to attack the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6 and overturn the 2020 presidential race.
On Tuesday, the latter offense officially earned Tarrio 22 years behind bars—by far the longest prison sentence given to anyone connected to the Jan. 6 MAGA Moron Rebellion.
It turns out that being a Black white nationalist doesn’t pay off. (Just ask Harrison Floyd.)
That’s right, District Judge Timothy Kelly gave Tarrio his lengthy sentence for “seditious conspiracy and leading a failed plot to prevent the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden,” according to CNN.
“It is kind of hard to put into words how important the peaceful transfer of power is,” Kelly said. “Our country was founded as an experiment in self-government by the people, but it cannot long endure if the way we elect our leaders is threatened with force and violence.”
“Mr. Tarrio was the ultimate leader, the ultimate person who organized, who was motivated by revolutionary zeal,” the judge continued, adding that Tarrio has shown “no remorse.”
The wild thing is that Tarrio wasn’t even at the Jan. 6 Krazed Kaucasian Konfrontation. He had been banned from D.C. for committing the hate crime against the poor, defenseless BLM banner. This is worse than when Craig got fired on his day off. He got more than two decades in prison when he wasn’t even able to attend the failed coup he helped plan, while folks who actually participated in it got far more lenient penalties.
One could say that Tarrio got his “n*gga wakeup call,” but, honestly, that call should have happened much sooner considering his history of Ls.
Kelly said that while Tarrio may not have been present at the Capitol during the attack, the Proud Boys leader “had an outsized impact on the events of the day. “
While the 22-year sentence is the longest for any January 6 defendant, the Justice Department had sought 33 years in prison for Tarrio.
Kelly had consistently gone far below previous Justice Department sentencing requests for Proud Boys members convicted in this case.
Kelly sentenced Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs, two of the far-right organization’s top lieutenants, to 18- and 17-year prison sentences, respectively. Zachary Rehl, a local Proud Boys chapter leader, was sentenced to 15 years behind bars, while Dominic Pezzola, a low-level member and the only defendant acquitted of the seditious conspiracy charge, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.CNN
Before sentencing, Tarrio essentially disavowed everything he previously stood for and promised the court he would have “nothing to do with politics, groups, activism or rallies.”
“I have always tried to hold myself to a higher standard and I failed,” Tarrio said. “I held myself morally above others, and this trial has shown me how wrong I was.”
He then told Kelly that he “spent the last year and a half trying to figure out how I ended up at this podium.”
“On November 3, 2020, something that I never expected happened – my candidate lost,” he continued. “I felt like something was personally stolen from me. Every media channel that I turned to told me I was justified.”
Oh word? Because virtually every media outlet outside of Fox News, Newsmax and OAN reported that Trump and his indicted cohorts were just saying the election was stolen without presenting tangible proof and losing every lawsuit they brought related to the non-stolen election. It’s also interesting the way people like Tarrio state vehemently and ad nauseam that they don’t trust the media—until they get in trouble. Then it’s: “The media made me do it.”
Of course, Tarrio then reversed his whole mea culpa by claiming he never intended to do any of what he’s convicted of doing.
“I am not a political zealot,” he told the court. “Inflicting harm or changing the outcome of the election was not my goal.”
Tarrio’s lawyer Sabino Jauregui is just as delusional.
“My client is no terrorist,” Jauregui said. “My client is a misguided patriot. That’s what my client is. This is not some foreign national waging war against the United States. He thought he was saving this country, saving this republic.”
First of all, there’s nothing abnormal about terrorists, foreign or domestic, believing in their causes. Secondly, Jauregui’s characterization of his client could be applied to literally everyone involved in the Jan. 6 Raging Whites Revolt. They all let their cult leader convince them of the “big lie.” They all thought they were “saving this country” by attempting to shut down democracy.
The only thing special about Tarrio’s case is the amount of prison time it resulted in.
But, hey, you lie down with white nationalist dogs, you wake up with white nationalist fleas.
