Enrique Tarrio, pardoned by Trump, helped start the Capitol Riot

By including Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, in his extraordinary pardons for the events of January 6, 2021, President Trump on Monday pardoned a man prosecutors have described as a savvy, street-fighting extremist who helped his countrymen in “Trump’s army” launches an attack on the Capitol.

Mr. Tarrio, 42, served a 22-year prison sentence after being convicted of seditious conspiracy and other crimes for his role in the Capitol attack. His was the longest sentence handed down against any of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with January 6.

His attorney said he could be released from a federal prison in Louisiana as early as Monday night.

Even before January 6, Mr. Tarrio among the most prominent far-right figures in the country, having been involved in violent protests dating back to the deadly neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017. Rarely seen. sans his sunglasses and baseball cap, he took control of Proud Boys the next year after the group’s founder, Gavin McInnes, stepped aside.

But Mr. Tarrio is arguably better known for the role he played in supporting Mr. Trump during the 2020 election — and in the chaotic months after he lost the race. The Proud Boys were thrown into the heart of that campaign two months before Election Day, when Mr. Trump called out the group by name at one of the presidential debates and told its members to “stand back and stand.”

Mr. Tarrio immediately responded on social media, “Stand by, sir.”

In December of the same year, Mr. Tarrio on a message that Mr. Trump himself posted on social media, summoning his supporters to Washington on January 6 for what he said would be a “wild” protest. The next day established Mr. Tarrio a crew of “hand-picked members” for the rally, court papers said, known within the proud boys as the Ministry of Self-Defense.

During the trial against Mr. Tarrio and four other Proud Boys described to federal prosecutors how the group under his control “thirst for violence and organized for action” after Mr. Trump lost the election and ultimately fought at the Capitol “to keep their preferred leader in power, regardless of what the law or the courts had to say about it.”

Mr. Tarrio was not in Washington on January 6. He had been thrown out of town days earlier by a local judge who presided over separate criminal charges against him for vandalizing a black church after an earlier pro-Trump rally. But prosecutors say he and other members of his group frantically exchanged text messages as the mob, led by the Proud Boys, overran the Capitol.

Ultimately, video clips of the attack showed that the Proud Boys were instrumental in encouraging other rioters to confront the police or confront the officers themselves. Members of the group took part in several breaches of police lines and were at the forefront of violence almost throughout the day.

When he was sentenced in federal district court in Washington, Mr. Tarrio portrayed himself as humbled by the events of January 6, apologizing for his role in the riot and calling it a “national embarrassment.”

“I’m not a political zealot,” he said.

A few months before going on trial, he secretly met with federal prosecutors, who offered him leniency at their own expense if he could confirm their theory that he had been in contact with Mr. Trump in the time leading up to January 6. through at least three intermediaries.

Mr. Tarrio said he told prosecutors they were wrong — a stance that, regardless of its truth, would surely have pleased Mr. Trump when it was published.

It is still unclear what Mr. Tarrio’s release could mean the future of The Proud Boys. He is a polarizing figure in the group, beloved by some members and despised and distrusted by others, including many from Miami, his hometown.

In addition, the organization dismantled its national leadership and largely withdrew from high-profile demonstrations after January 6, leading to the arrest and prosecution of dozens of its members. While some chapters of the Proud Boys used violent language on their online accounts during the 2024 campaign, the group was barely present on the streets or at rallies in support of Mr. Trump.