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Seditious Proud Boys Considered Themselves "Donald Trump's Army" Says Prosecutor In Closing Argument [1]
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Date: 2023-04-24
The prosecution has rested it’s case...
Politico
Leaders of the far-right Proud Boys, fearful about their place in a post-Trump America, instead tried to prevent it from happening at all — even if it meant a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors argued Monday. “These defendants saw themselves as Donald Trump’s army, fighting to keep their preferred leader in power no matter what the law or the courts had to say about it,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Conor Mulroe said Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C. Mulroe made the Justice Department’s closing pitch Monday in the most significant trial to emerge from the Jan. 6 attack. More than 1,000 people have been charged for their behavior that day, but prosecutors say the Proud Boys played the most critical, galvanizing role in assembling and leading the mob to the Capitol — and then breaching police lines and the building itself.
Conspiracy doesn’t require an actual plan...
Reuters
A U.S. prosecutor on Monday said leaders of the Proud Boys were “thirsting for violence and organizing for action” ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, as the criminal trial of five members of the far-right group neared its conclusion. Assistant U.S. Attorney Conor Mulroe told a jury in a closing argument that the Proud Boys viewed themselves as a “fighting force” for Republican then-President Donald Trump and were “ready to commit violence on his behalf” in order to overturn his 2020 election defeat. “For these defendants, politics was no longer something for the debating floor or the voting booth,” Mulroe said. “To them, politics meant actual physical combat.” (snip) Mulroe told the jury that the defendants did not have to have a specific plan to attack the Capitol to be guilty of seditious conspiracy, a rarely invoked charge that carries a penalty of up to 20 year in prison. He said jurors only needed to conclude that they acted on a common goal of disrupting Congress.
Trump told them to “stand back and stand by” during a debate...
WUSA9
The Proud Boys responded to a rallying cry from former President Donald Trump by forming themselves into a “violent gang” ready to use violence to keep him in power, federal prosecutors said Monday during closing arguments in the trial of five members of the group. Trump’s comment during a 2020 presidential debate that the Proud Boys should “stand back and stand by” energized the group, which saw it as a “call to arms” according to former North Carolina member Jeremy Bertino. On Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Conor Mulroe, giving the government’s closing argument, focused on another of Trump’s statements: a Dec. 19 tweet calling for supporters to come to D.C. on Jan. 6 and promising “will be wild.” Within 24 hours, Mulroe said, the Proud Boys’ new Ministry of Self-Defense (MOSD) chat was up and running. The MOSD chat eventually became a key organizing tool for the group’s presence in D.C. on Jan. 6. “You want to call this a drinking club? You want to call this a men’s fraternal organization. Let’s call this what it is. The Ministry of Self-Defense was a violent gang that came together to use force against its enemies,” Mulroe said. “It was all about force. It wasn’t to prevent violence. It was to channel it. Or, in Enrique Tarrio’s words, to ‘harness these rally boys in real numbers.’”
Tough guys are always their own worst enemies…
Salon
For those who have been following the seemingly endless D.C. trial for five leaders accused of crimes related to the insurrection of January 6, it's starting to become a serious question. To start, the defense attorneys have been pulling stunts and filing nuisance motions, likely annoying the jury by drawing out a trial that was initially supposed to last a few weeks into a months-long affair. But most bizarrely, the defense keeps undermining its own strategy. Despite the circus atmosphere that has prevailed since the court procedures began late last year, the legal team for the Proud Boys seemingly has a simple defense: The right-wing group never intended to be the vanguard of Donald Trump's insurrection but were just innocent protesters who got caught up in the moment. It's always been a tough case to make. As with the members of a similar neo-fascist gang that was convicted on similar charges, the Oath Keepers, there's a pile of text messages and video evidence demonstrating how intentional the attack was. This may be why the defense team decided to let Proud Boys defend themselves from the stand, hoping they could "humanize" them to the jury. (snip) One does start to wonder why these fools went to trial instead of trying to plead down, especially after the Oath Keepers made the same play and ended up being sent to prison. If they were trying to be martyrs, they'd own their behavior openly, instead of playing weaselly word games on the stand. No, it appears the Proud Boys, like the Oath Keepers before them, went this route for a simple reason: Their egos will not let them admit that it was a stupid thing, following Trump to the point of rioting at the Capitol. They'd rather risk hefty prison sentences than say out loud that the liberals were right all along.
Where’d they get the idea for Dumbledork’s Army?
Forbes
President Trump’s campaign website, Army For Trump, encourages his supporters to sign up to help the President win reelection. But as concerns about post-election violence grow, does the provocatively named website have a more troubling purpose? The website, which launched this spring, uses highly militarized imagery and language, calling on Trump supporters to “enlist” in a variety of activities to support the campaign. Volunteers are asked to join the “frontlines” and work alongside “battle tested Team Trump operatives,” promising to promote followers to be part of the “field staff” of the Trump army. (snip) Beyond the website and the rhetoric, the “Army of Trump” campaign raises a troubling question of how the President intends to rally his supporters in the final days of the campaign. His surrogates are increasingly making calls to join the Army of Trump online, and followers are seemingly taking the call to action, and arms, seriously For example, a cursory search of the #ArmyForTrump hashtag on Twitter reveals a large number of posts promoting violence against the President’s opposition, in some cases specifically naming Biden and other leading Democrats as enemies.
It was Trump’s campaign strategy...
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/24/2165640/-Seditious-Proud-Boys-Considered-Themselves-Donald-Trump-s-Army-Says-Prosecutor-In-Closing-Argument
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