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| Photo Credit: AP. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — A North Carolina man pleaded guilty Thursday to plotting with other members of the far-right Proud Boys to violently stop the transfer of presidential power after the 2020 election, making him the first member of the extremist group to plead guilty to a seditious conspiracy charge.
Jeremy
Joseph Bertino, 43, has agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department’s
investigation of the role that Proud Boys leaders played in the mob’s attack on
the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a federal prosecutor said.
Bertino’s
cooperation could ratchet up the pressure on other Proud Boys charged in the
siege, including former national chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio.
The guilty
plea comes as the founder of the another extremist group, the Oath Keepers, and
four associates charged separately in the Jan. 6 attack stand trial on
seditious conspiracy — a rarely used Civil War era offense that calls for up to
20 years behind bars.
Bertino
traveled to Washington with other Proud Boys in December 2020 and was stabbed
during a fight, according to court documents. He was not in Washington for the
Jan. 6 riot because he was still recovering from his injuries, court papers
say.
Bertino
participated in planning sessions in the days leading up to Jan. 6 and received
encrypted messages as early as Jan. 4 indicating that Proud Boys were
discussing possibly storming the Capitol, according to authorities.
A statement
of offense filed in court says that Bertino understood the Proud Boys’ goal in
traveling to Washington was to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory
and that the group was prepared to use force and violence if necessary to do
so.
On Jan. 6,
Bertino applauded the insurrection from afar and sent messages encouraging
other Proud Boys to keep pushing toward the Capitol.
“DO NOT GO
HOME. WE ARE ON THE CUSP OF SAVING THE CONSTITUTION,” he wrote on a social
media account. That night, he messaged Tarrio, “You know we made this happen.”
Bertino also
pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawfully possessing firearms in March 2022 in
Belmont, North Carolina. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly agreed to release
Bertino pending a sentencing hearing, which wasn’t immediately scheduled.
Justice
Department prosecutor Erik Kenerson said sentencing guidelines for Bertino’s
case recommend a prison sentence ranging from four years and three months to
five years and three months.
A trial is
scheduled to start in December for Tarrio and four other members charged with
seditious conspiracy: Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic
Pezzola. The charging document for Bertino’s case names those five defendants
and a sixth Proud Boys member as his co-conspirators.
Tarrio’s
case is among the most serious charged in the attack, which sent lawmakers
running and left dozens of officers bloodied and bruised.
Nayib
Hassan, one of Tarrio’s attorneys, said Bertino’s cooperation doesn’t change
the landscape for his client’s case. He described Bertino as “just another
individual who is going to be testifying.” Tarrio is “still looking forward to
his day at trial,” Hassan added.
The
indictment in Tarrio’s case alleges that the Proud Boys held meetings and
communicated over encrypted messages to plan for the attack in the days leading
up to Jan. 6. On the day of the riot, authorities say Proud Boys dismantled
metal barricades set up to protect the Capitol and mobilized, directed and led
members of the crowd into the building.
Video
testimony by Bertino was featured in June at the first hearing by the House
committee investigating Jan. 6. The committee showed a clip of Bertino saying
that the group’s membership “tripled, probably” after Trump’s comment at a
presidential debate that the Proud Boys should “stand back and stand by.”
Tarrio
wasn’t in Washington on Jan. 6, but authorities say he helped put into motion
the violence that day. Police arrested Tarrio in Washington two days before the
riot and charged him with vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic
Black church during a protest in December 2020. Tarrio was released from jail
on Jan. 14 of this year after serving his five-month sentence for that case.
More than
three dozen people charged in the Capitol riot have been identified by federal
authorities as leaders, members or associates of the Proud Boys. Two — Matthew
Greene and Charles Donohoe — pleaded guilty to conspiring to obstruct an
official proceeding, the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress for certifying the
Electoral College vote.
Proud Boys
members describe the group as a politically incorrect men’s club for “Western
chauvinists.” They have brawled with antifascist activists at rallies and
protests. Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, who founded the Proud Boys in
2016, sued the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling it as a hate group.
Nordean, of
Auburn, Washington, was a Proud Boys chapter president and a member of the
group’s national “Elders Council.” Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, is a
self-described Proud Boys organizer. Rehl was president of the Proud Boys
chapter in Philadelphia. Pezzola is a Proud Boys member from Rochester, New
York.
For full
coverage of the Capitol riot, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege