Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was convicted Thursday of orchestrating a plot for members of his far-right extremist group to attack the US Capitol in a desperate bid to keep Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 presidential election. lost.

A Washington DC jury found Tarrio guilty of seditious conspiracy after hearing dozens of witnesses over more than three months in one of the most serious cases of the stunning attack that took place on Jan. 6, 2021, while the world watched live TV.

It is an important milestone for the Justice Department, which has now convicted the leaders of two major extremist groups of inciting conspiracy. The charge carries a possible prison sentence of up to 20 years.

Tarrio was a prime target of what has become the largest Justice Department investigation in U.S. history. He led the neo-fascist group known for street fighting with left-wing activists when Trump infamously told the Proud Boys to step back and stand by during his first debate with Biden.

Tarrio was not in Washington on January 6, but prosecutors said he organized and led the attack of Proud Boys who stormed the Capitol.

Defense attorneys said there was no plan to attack the Capitol or stop Congressional certification of Biden’s victory. A lawyer for Tarrio tried to pin the blame on Trump, arguing that the former president incited the attack of the pro-Trump mob when he urged the mob at the White House to fight like crazy.

Tarrio, a Miami resident, was charged and tried with four other Proud Boys: Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola. Nordean, of Auburn, Washington, was a chapter leader of the Proud Boys. Rehl ran a group chapter in Philadelphia. Biggs, from Ormond Beach, Florida, was a self-proclaimed Proud Boys organizer. Pezzola was a group member from Rochester, New York.