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| Photo Credit: AP. |
A federal judge has postponed Proud Boys riot trial over the House Select Committee hearing that is currently ongoing at the U.S. Capitol.
The judge agreed
Wednesday to delay a trial for the former leader of the Proud Boys and other
members of the extremist group who are facing charges related to attacking the
U.S. Capitol last year in a failed bid to stop Congress from certifying President
Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
U.S.
District Judge Timothy Kelly postponed the start of the trial from August 8 to
December 12 after attorneys for several of the men lamented that their clients
couldn’t get a fair trial by an impartial jury in the midst of televised
hearings by the House Committee investigating the Capitol attack, The
Associated Press reports. Prosecutors want the panel to share information with
them that could serve as trial evidence.
A former
Proud Boys national chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and four other men are
charged with seditious conspiracy to forcibly oppose the lawful transfer of
presidential power during the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021,
according to The Associated Press.
According to
The Associated Press, Tarrio, 38, of Miami, and his co-defendants — Ethan
Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola have been in federal
custody for months.
Their trial
is expected to last four to six months and would stretch into 2023.
Biggs,
Pezzola and Rehl asked for the trial to be postponed over fears that the media
atmosphere in Washington just as the January 6 hearing was ongoing would not be
in their favor.
Justice
Department prosecutors agreed to the delay following failures by the House
Select Committee to share interview transcripts with the DOJ which it noted was
hampering their ability to investigate and prosecute January 6 defendants.
“Tarrio
believes that an impartial jury will never be achieved in Washington, D.C.,
whether the trial is in August, December, or next year,” his lawyers wrote
expressing fears he may not get a fair trial, according to The Associated Press.
Although
Tarrio was not in Washington at the time of the violent siege, authorities say
he helped put into motion the violence that disrupted Congress from certifying
Joe Biden’s victory at the polls.
The seditious
conspiracy indictment alleges that the Proud Boys held meetings and
communicated over encrypted messages to plant to attack in the days leading up
to January 6. Proud Boys members carried out a coordinated plan to storm past
police barricades and attack the building with a mob of misguided Trump
supporters, the indictment says, according to The Associated Press.