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Tarrio arrested on charges of assaulting protester outside Capitol

WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 21: Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the far-right group the Proud Boys, shakes hands with Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes following their news conference at the U.S. Capitol on February 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. The news conference was held in the same area where thousands of supporters of President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 06, 2021 in an attempt to halt the certification of former President Joe Biden’s election victory. In one of the first acts of his second term, Trump pardoned nearly 1,600 people charged and convicted of crimes related to the attack, including Tarrio, Rhodes and the Proud Boys members who participated in the violence. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) (Chip Somodevilla)
By Alan Feuer New York Times

One month after being pardoned by President Donald Trump for his role in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, was arrested again on charges of assaulting a protester at a bizarre news conference held outside the Capitol on Friday.

Tarrio was taken away by the Capitol Police after he swiped at a protester who had been persistently interrupting him and other speakers at the event by blowing a whistle and screaming insults. According to a spokesperson for the Capitol Police, Tarrio struck the woman’s arm as she put her cellphone close to his face.

He was subsequently arrested on charges of simple assault.

It was an astonishing development that Tarrio – fresh from being pardoned – was taken into custody again after appearing with several other Jan. 6 defendants outside the very building that sat at the center of the riotous attack that sent many of them to prison. The officers who made the arrest were part of the same organization that bore the brunt of the mob’s violence on Jan. 6.

Before Trump’s clemency grant, Tarrio had been serving a 22-year sentence after his conviction on seditious conspiracy charges at a lengthy trial in Washington two years ago. His four co-defendants in the case – Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola – were also present at the news conference, but did not get into scuffles with protesters.

The event, which Tarrio had been actively promoting while in Washington to attend CPAC, the conservative political conference, appeared to be an opportunity for him and his compatriots in the far-right group to tell their version of what took place on Jan. 6.

The men sought to play down their own role in the violence that day, blaming the police and claiming that their joint prosecution, culminating in a multiweek trial, had been unfair.

When Pezzola, who used a stolen police riot shield to shatter a window at the Capitol, was asked by a reporter if the action had escalated the chaos on the ground, he said he disagreed.

“Escalated? No,” he responded. “It was escalated by the police.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.