DOJ: Film crew was present at Jan. 5 meeting between leaders of Proud Boys, Oath Keepers
The details provide new evidence of the encounter between the two groups, whose leaders played a key role in the breach of the Capitol the following day.
Prosecutors say a “documentary film crew” was present when Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes met for 30 minutes in an underground parking garage on Jan. 5, 2021.
The details, revealed in a Justice Department court filing on Monday, provide new evidence of the encounter between the two groups, whose leaders played a key role in the breach of the Capitol the following day.
“While in the parking garage, Tarrio told another individual that he had cleared all of the messages on his phone before he was arrested,” prosecutors wrote, in a filing urging a federal magistrate judge to detain Tarrio pending trial. “Tarrio further stated that no one would be able to get into his phone because there were ‘two steps’ to get into it.”
Prosecutors say that after Tarrio left Washington, D.C., that night — part of a court order that he stay away from the city while facing charges related to his conduct during a December 2020 rally — he traveled to Baltimore.
“That evening, Tarrio used the phones of associates to make a number of phone calls, and to log back into his encrypted messaging accounts,” prosecutors say. “After having regained access to his accounts, Tarrio assured his men that his phone had not been compromised.”
Reuters first reported on the existence of the Tarrio-Rhodes meeting, and the FBI’s interest in it, last month.
The new details suggest Tarrio played a more direct role than previously understood in orchestrating the events that occurred on Jan. 6, when top Proud Boys leaders were at the vanguard of a mob that overran police lines and threatened the presidential transfer of power.
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NEWS: Prosecutors say that when Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio met with Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes on Jan. 5 in an underground parking garage, they had a "documentary film crew" with them. https://t.co/6Nf80sIU2G
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 14, 2022
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