The leader of the Proud Boys, who was arrested shortly before the riot in the Capitol in Washington, had previously worked undercover and collaborated with investigators after being accused of fraud in 2012, court documents show.
Henry “Enrique” Tarrio assisted law enforcement officers in various investigations nearly a decade ago by providing information and going undercover, the records show.
The Proud Boys are a far-right, male chauvinist extremist group that has pursued the policies of the Trump administration and was a major uproar during earlier protests and the January 6 riot on the Capitol. to break down the current system of government, and the revelations of Tarrio as a federal informant were therefore quite a surprise.
The details of Tarrio’s collaboration, first reported by Reuters on Wednesday, were found in a transcript of a 2014 trial in Florida federal court over his sentence for participating in a scheme that resold diabetic test strips regards.
The prosecutor and the lawyer for Tarrio both cited the extended cooperation of Tarrio and argued that his sentence of 30 months should be suspended. The judge agreed to reduce his sentence to 16 months, according to the records.
“Reverend, to be honest, in all the years I’ve done more than thirty now, I’ve never had a client who was so productive in any way,” Tarrio’s attorney at the time said. Jeffrey Feiler, according to the transcript.
An attorney representing Tarrio in his current case was not immediately returned. In an interview with Reuters, Tarrio denied ever cooperating with authorities.
After Tarrio’s indictment in 2012, he helped the government prosecute more than a dozen other people, the federal prosecutor told the judge, according to the transcript. According to Tarrio’s lawyer, he was the first accused to cooperate in the case and he was also involved in a variety of police covert operations involving things like anabolic steroids and prescribed narcotics.
“From day one, he was the one who wanted to talk to law enforcers, wanted to clear his name, wanted to fix it so he could continue with his life. And he actually cooperated in an important way, ‘the prosecutor said according to the transcript.
Tarrio arrested in Washington on Jan. 4, two days before the pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol in an effort to thwart President Joe Biden’s victory.
He is accused of vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church during an earlier protest in the country’s capital. The banner was ripped from the property of the Asbury United Methodist Church, torn in December and set on fire.
According to a police report, Tarrio was seen with the video in which the incident appeared on YouTube. When police picked up Tarrio, officers found two loaded magazines with the Proud Boys logo in his suitcase, each of which had 30 rounds, authorities said.
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Richer reported from Boston. Associated Press Reporter Curt Anderson in St. Louis Petersburg, Florida, contributed to this report.