Proud Boys members admit to complicity in Capitol attack

A man has pleaded guilty to conspiring with other members of the far-right Proud Boys to violently prevent a presidential transfer after the 2020 election, making him the first member of the extremist group to plead guilty to incitement conspiracy charges.

Jeremy Joseph Bertino, 43, has agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation into the Proud Boys leader’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, mob attack on the U.S. Capitol, a federal prosecutor said.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly agreed to release Bertino pending a sentencing hearing that was not immediately scheduled.

Bertino, of North Carolina, also pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful firearm possession in Belmont, North Carolina, in March 2022. Judge Kelly accepted his guilty plea to both charges at a brief hearing following the indictment against Bertino on Thursday.

Justice Department prosecutor Erik Kenerson said the estimated sentencing guidelines in Bertino’s case recommend sentences ranging from four years and three months to five years and three months in prison.

Civil War-era sedition conspiracy charges carry up to 20 years in prison.

Former Proud Boys national president Henry “Enrique” Tario and four other members of the group have also been charged with inciting conspiracy in what prosecutors say was a coordinated attack on the U.S. Capitol to prevent Congress from proving Joe Bye. President Deng’s 2020 election victory.

The trials of Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola are scheduled to begin in December.

A trial against the founder of The Oath’s founder and other members of the anti-government militia group for an seditious conspiracy over the Jan. 6 attack began in Washington this week.

Federal authorities have identified more than three dozen people charged in the Capitol siege as leaders, members or associates of the Proud Boys. Two of them — Matthew Green and Charles Donoghue — pleaded guilty to conspiring to obstruct the official process, the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress, to certify the Electoral College vote.

Proud Boys members describe the group as a politically incorrect men’s club of “Western chauvinists”. They have quarreled with anti-fascist activists at rallies and protests.

Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, who founded Proud Boys in 2016, is suing the Southern Poverty Law Center, calling it a hate group.

Nordean, from Auburn, Washington, is the Proud Boys chapter president and a member of the organization’s national Seniors Council. Biggs of Ormond Beach, Florida, claims to be a Proud Boys organizer. Rael is the president of the Philadelphia Proud Boys Chapter. Pezzola is a member of the Proud Boys from Rochester, NY.