Prosecutors have underscored the group’s repeated responses to Trump’s public statements.
Leaders of the far-right Proud Boys say they intend to subpoena former President Donald Trump to testify in the ongoing trial pertaining to the group’s alleged conspiracy to forcibly derail the transfer of power from Trump to President Joe Biden.
Prosecutors have underscored the group’s repeated responses to Trump’s public statements — from his Sept. 2020 debate-stage exhortation to the group to “stand back and stand by” to his Dec. 19, 2020 tweet urging supporters to attend his Jan. 6 rally. “Be there. Will be wild,” he wrote.
“Donald trump called on patriots to stop the steal. We’re calling on Donald Trump to take the stand,” said Norm Pattis, attorney for Proud Boy Joe Biggs.
Former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio and four allies are charged with seditious conspiracy, a plot to violently keep Trump in office anchored in part by preventing Congress from certifying the election on Jan. 6, 2021.
The prospect of Trump appearing on the witness stand seems remote, but until Thursday, the intention of the defendants to call the former president was uncertain.
“We’re going to ask the government for assistance in serving Mr. Trump,” Pattis said.
The Proud Boys defense attorneys have hinted at times throughout the trial that Trump bears responsibility for the actions of their own clients and thousands of others who marched on the Capitol at his urging. Putting him on the witness stand, while still a longshot, would give them a chance to probe his mindset under oath in a way that federal investigators have been unable to so far.
Other Jan. 6 defendants have sought Trump’s testimony but gotten no support from judges, who found their claims to need the former president’s testimony dubious. But the Proud Boys may have the clearest case, given Trump’s explicit reference to the group during the debate and the group’s centrality to the riot that unfolded on Jan. 6.
Prosecutors say the Proud Boys are singularly responsible for the violence that unfolded, helping trigger key breaches of police defenses — including the actual breach of the building itself, when Dominic Pezzola, one of the five defendants, used a stolen riot shield to smash a Senate-wing window.
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NEW: The Proud Boys on trial for a Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy say they intend to subpoena Donald Trump as a trial witness.https://t.co/isw8WS9fd7
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) February 16, 2023
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