Proud Boys leader thanks Trump for January 6 pardon and vows revenge

In his first interview after his release from prison, Enrique Tarrio thanked Donald Trump for pardoning him for his role in planning the January 6 riot, saying he “literally gave me my life back”.

Now that he is out, the Proud Boys leader wants revenge, he told Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist host of Info Wars.

“The people who did this, they need to feel the heat, they need to be put behind bars, and they need to be prosecuted,” Tarrio said.

“Success is going to be retribution,” he added. “We gotta do everything in our power to make sure that the next four years sets us up for the next 100 years.”

In the days since the leaders of far-right militia groups were freed from prison, they and their organizations are regrouping and figuring out how to build back momentum now that Trump is back in office. They are emboldened by the mass pardons for the insurrectionists and are planning their next moves.

Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, showed up at the US Capitol this week, dining at a Dunkin inside the Longworth House office building. The Associated Press reported that Rhodes “met with at least one lawmaker during his visit and chatted with others” while on Capitol Hill.

He gave interviews outside the DC jail, where he said he wanted prosecutors to be tried for their “crimes”. Rhodes was not pardoned – his sentence was commuted, and he was released early. He wants a full pardon.

Rhodes suggested January 6 should be remembered in history as “patriots day”. He has not expressed regret for his role in the riots, saying his members were entrapped and their responses to police force were understandable. “We were there to protect Trump supporters from Antifa,” he said in a video after his release.

When Rhodes was sentenced in 2023, the judge in his case said: “You are smart, you are charismatic and compelling and frankly that’s what makes you dangerous. The moment you are released, whenever that may be, you will be ready to take up arms against your government.”

Tarrio and Rhodes had some of the longest sentences given to January 6 defendants, at 22 years and 18 years, respectively. Both were charged with seditious conspiracy for their roles helping plan the attack. Members of both the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers infiltrated the Capitol on January 6, and some of them engaged in violence. The Oath Keepers “plotted for months to violently disrupt the peaceful transfer of power” and the Proud Boys “played a central role in setting the January 6 attack on our Capitol into motion”, attorneys for the government said during the cases against group members.

At the time of Tarrio’s sentencing, federal prosecutors said: “No organization put more boots on the ground at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 than the Proud Boys, and they were at the forefront of every major breach of the Capitol’s defenses, leading the on-the-ground efforts to storm the seat of government.”

The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism has tracked Proud Boys’ channels online since Trump’s pardons and seen the group “fantasizing about being ‘deputized as ICE under Trump’s second term’ to aid in Trump’s mass deportation plan” and encouraging members to report people who could be in the country illegally.

Tarrio, often referred to in the media as a “former” or “ex” leader of the Proud Boys, recently said that characterizing him as a former member was not accurate.

“We’ve made the decision four years ago not to tell the media what our structure is, but I suggest that the media should stop calling me ex-Proud Boy leader,” he told CBS News.

A procession of Proud Boys marched in Washington on inauguration day, carrying a banner that congratulated Trump on his victory, a visible representation of the welcome the far right is receiving from the new administration. They chanted “fuck Joe Biden” and “fuck Antifa” in their return to the national stage, and called for Trump to “free our boys”.

The rewriting of January 6 – and attempts to seek revenge on the people involved in initially investigating and prosecuting it – will continue during Trump’s second term. The House speaker, Mike Johnson, announced on Wednesday that a new select subcommittee will be formed to investigate “all events leading up to and after January 6” in order to “uncover the full truth that is owed to the American people”.

A webpage previously set up for the FBI’s most wanted list of the January 6 attack now redirects to the main FBI page. Trump directed the justice department to cease its ongoing cases related to the riot.

Police officers who were at the Capitol on January 6 have spoken out against Trump’s decision to pardon or commute sentences for all involved in the Capitol attack, especially those who were convicted of killing or assaulting law enforcement officers. Some of the officers, including those who testified in January 6 cases, have said they fear for their safety now that the insurrectionists have been released.

Michael Fanone, a retired officer who was beaten on January 6, put his message to Rhodes more bluntly in a live CNN interview: “This is what I say to Stewart Rhodes – go fuck yourself.”