Poised for all-out war, leaders of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys saw themselves as foot soldiers fighting for Donald Trump as the former president clung to power after the 2020 election, a prosecutor said Monday at the end of a historic trial over the uprising of the US Capitol.

After more than three months of testimony, jurors began to hear lawyers’ closing arguments in the seditious conspiracy case that charged Proud Boys national president Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants with conspiracy to forcibly stop Trump’s transfer of power to president

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The Proud Boys stood behind Donald Trump and were prepared to commit violence on his behalf,” prosecutor Conor Mulroe told jurors. These defendants saw themselves as Donald Trump’s army, fighting to keep their favorite leader in power regardless of the law or the courts. had to say something about it.”

The prosecution’s words underline how the Justice Department worked during the trial to link the January 6, 2021, violence to the former president’s rhetoric and actions. Prosecutors have repeatedly shown jurors a video clip of Trump ordering the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by during his first presidential debate with

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Tarrio is one of the main targets of the Justice Department’s investigation into the riot

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erupted at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Tarrio was not in Washington, D.C. that day, but is accused of orchestrating an attack from afar.

The informant did not spy on Proud Boys’ defense, prosecutors say

Defense attorneys say there is no evidence of a conspiracy or plan for Proud Boys to attack the Capitol.

Nicholas Smith, attorney for former Proud Boys chapter leader Ethan Nordean, said prosecutors based their case on deception and innuendo. Smith accused prosecutors of repeatedly playing Trump’s clip from the debate to try to manipulate jurors.

Does that prove a conspiracy of the men here?’ Smith asked the jurors. “We all know that’s not the case.

Seditious conspiracy, a Civil War charge that is rare and can be difficult to prove, can lead to a prison sentence of up to 20 years. The Proud Boys also face other serious charges.

Mulroe said a conspiracy can be an unspoken and implied mutual understanding, achieved with a wink and a nod.

The Justice Department has already secured seditious conspiracy convictions against the founder and members of another far-right extremist group, the Oath Keepers. But this is the first major trial involving leaders of the far-right Proud Boys, a neo-fascist group of self-declared Western chauvinists that remains a force in mainstream Republican circles.

Agent passes information to Proud Boys leader, jury hears testimony

The basis of the government’s case, which began with jury selection in January, is a trove of messages that Proud Boys leaders and members exchanged privately in encrypted chats and posted publicly on social media before, during and after the January 6 attack. .

The posts show Proud Boys celebrating when Trump, a Republican, told the group to step back and stand by during his first debate with Biden, a Democrat. After the 2020 election, they raged online for weeks about unfounded claims of stolen elections and what would happen if Biden took office.

If Biden steals this election, [the Proud Boys] will be political prisoners, Tarrio posted on Nov. 16, 2020. We won’t go quietly…I promise.

Jurors also saw the string of upbeat messages Proud Boys members posted during the January 6 riot. A group of Proud Boys marched to the Capitol that day. Some entered the building after crowds of Trump supporters overwhelmed police lines.

Make no mistake, Tarrio wrote in one post. We did this.

Prosecutors showed multiple videos from Jan. 6 during their closing statements, including one showing suspect Zachary Rehl spraying police officers with pepper spray outside the Capitol. Confronted with the footage during his testimony earlier in the trial, Rehl said he couldn’t remember doing such a thing and couldn’t tell if it was him. Mulroe said the footage shows he did it and that he lied about it under oath.

Leaders of right-wing militias, on trial for sedition, continue to threaten democracy

Tarrio, a resident of Miami, Nordean and Rehl are on trial with Joseph Biggs and Dominic Pezzola. Nordean, of Auburn, Washington, was president of the Proud Boys chapter. Biggs of Ormond Beach, Fla., self-described as a Proud Boys organizer. Rehl was president of a Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia. Pezzola was a Proud Boys member from Rochester, NY

Tarrio was arrested two days before the January 6 riot in Washington D.C. on charges that he burned a church’s Black Lives Matter banner during an earlier march in the city. Tarrio followed a judge’s order to leave the country’s capital after his arrest.

Defense attorneys called several current and former Proud Boys to the stand, attempting to portray the group as a drinking club solely engaged in self-defense violence against anti-fascist activists.

Rehl, the first defendant to testify, said the group had no purpose that day. Pezzola testified that he got caught up in the craziness and acted alone on January 6 when he used a riot shield stolen from a police officer to smash a Capitol window.

The prosecution told jurors that the Proud Boys leaders wanted to prevent Congress from ratifying Biden’s victory by any means necessary, including violence.

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes convicted of seditious conspiracy in January 6 case

You want to call this a drinking club? You want to call a fraternal men’s organization? Ladies and gentlemen, let’s call this a violent gang that came together to use violence against its enemies, Mulroe said.

Key witnesses for prosecutors included two former Proud Boys members who pleaded guilty to charges of rioting and collaborating with the government in hopes of getting lighter sentences.

The first, Matthew Greene, testified that group members expected civil war as they became increasingly angry about the election results. The second, Jeremy Bertino, testified that he saw the Proud Boys as leaders of the Conservative movement and as the tip of the spear after the November 2020 election.

The Proud Boys defense echoed arguments from attorneys for members of the Oath Keepers, who were charged separately with seditious conspiracy. They, too, said there was no evidence of a plan for group members to attack the Capitol.

Over the course of two Oath Keepers trials, prosecutors have secured seditious conspiracy convictions against Rhodes and five other members, while three defendants were acquitted of the charges. However, those three were convicted of obstructing Congressional certification of Biden’s election victory.

Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston contributed to this report.