Left: Henry “Enrique” Tarrio booking photo; Tarrio is now serving 22 years in prison for seditiously conspiring to stop the transfer of power on Jan. 6, 2021. Alexandria Sherriff’s Office. / Right: This exhibit from video released by the House Select Committee, shows President Donald Trump recording a video statement on the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, from the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C.House Select Committee via AP
The convicted seditious conspiracist and onetime leader of the far-right Proud Boys, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, would like to align himself with Donald Trump once again, asking a judge from behind bars if he can join the former president’s request to pause all civil litigation seeking to hold Trump responsible for the violence of Jan. 6, 2021.
The motion to join Trump’s stay request notes that Tarrio — who was sentenced to 22 years in prison — is after “judicial economy.”
Daniel Hull told Law&Crime on Thursday that Tarrio made the filing because he is a defendant in three of the lawsuits now before U.S. District Judge Mehta. Tarrio is just one of a few defendants along with Trump and others, like Rudy Giuliani, who have been sued by lawmakers in their individual capacities to hold them accountable for the violence of the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The motion spans just a page and states:
Under Fed. R. Civ. P. 7(b), defendant Henry Tarrio, by undersigned counsel, moves to join defendant Donald Trump’s March 19, 2024, motion for stay (ECF No. 90). While no official act immunity issue or other Trump defense in the cases discussed in ECF No. 90 currently directly affect him, Mr. Tarrio moves to join the motion both in the interest of judicial economy and in any other applicable respect. Therefore, and for good cause shown, Tarrio respectfully requests that this Motion to Join ECF No. 90 be granted.
The Democratic lawmakers who have sued Trump, Giuliani and far-right groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys included the former chairman of the now defunct House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, Bennie Thompson, California Reps. Karen Bass, Barbara Lee, and Maxine Waters, Steve Cohen of Tennessee, Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, Veronica Escobar of Texas, Hank Johnson, Jr. of Georgia, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Jerry Nadler of New York, and Pramila Jayapal of Washington.
They allege that Trump, Giuliani, and the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys “conspired to incite an assembled crowd to march upon and enter the Capitol of the United States for the common purpose of disrupting the counting of Electoral College votes on Jan. 6.”
Tarrio was convicted in September 2023 after a marathon trial in Washington, D.C. As Law&Crime previously reported, after an extensive review of evidence and testimony, a jury found Tarrio and several of his co-defendants guilty of plotting to stop the transfer of power on Jan. 6.
As of Thursday morning, Mehta, a Barack Obama appointee, had not yet responded to Trump’s motion to stay nor Tarrio’s request.
Trump’s attorney David Warrington argues that a stay on the civil litigation is necessary because without it, Trump may be forced to unfairly expose the defense strategy he intends to use once he goes on criminal trial in Washington, D.C., for allegedly conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
This story is still unfolding.