Proud Boys face conspiracy charges after Capitol riot

Tal Axelrod
The Hill
Sat, 30 Jan 2021 07:56 UTC

© Win McNamee/Getty Images

Dominic Pezzola (L) stands among the crowd of Trump supporters • January 6, 2021

Federal prosecutors Friday night announced the first conspiracy charges against members of the Proud Boys over the group's role in the deadly Jan. 6 riot in the Capitol.

Prosecutors said in a news release that two members of the far-right "Western chauvinist" group conspired to obstruct law enforcement officers' efforts to protect the Capitol from the mob. The members, Dominic Pezzola of Rochester, N.Y., and William Pepe of Beacon, N.Y., had already been charged with lesser offenses from their activities on Jan. 6.

The new charges represented a substantial step up in prosecutors' actions against Proud Boys members. More than 170 people have been charged over the riot, though most have been over minor allegations such as disorderly conduct and unlawful entry.

Conspiracy charges were also previously announced against three members of the militia group the Oath Keepers over their alleged role in the chaos on Capitol Hill.

Prosecutors said Pezzola and Pepe

"engaged in a conspiracy to obstruct, influence, impede, and interfere with law enforcement officers engaged in their official duties in protecting the U.S. Capitol and its grounds on Jan. 6, 2021."

"It is alleged that Pezzola and Pepe took actions to evade and render ineffective the protective equipment deployed by Capitol Police in active riot control measures, including actions to remove temporary metal barricades erected by the Capitol Police for the purpose of controlling access to the Capitol Grounds, and the stealing and purloining of property belonging to Capitol Police."

Pezzola is also said to have ripped away a Capitol Police officer's riot shield while the officer was trying to push back the rioters. Files retrieved when FBI agents raided his home indicated he had been examining "Advanced Improvised Explosives," "Explosive Dusts" and Ragnar's Big Book of Homemade Weapons.

Michael Scibetta, Pezzola's lawyer, told The New York Times on Friday night that he had not yet seen the new conspiracy charges and that he was being barred from seeing his client. "The matter is evolving," Scibetta said.

The Proud Boys, a group known to espouse racist views, gained national prominence after videos circulated of its members engaging in violent street fights with members of Antifa, the loose collection of anti-fascist agitators. Their profile only grew when former President Trump declined to explicitly condemn them at a presidential debate, saying, "Stand back and stand by," a remark the group interpreted as one of support.

They've drawn the scrutiny of prosecutors after videos showed members attended the riots that led to the deaths of several people.

At least four other members of the Proud Boys have been charged thus far over the insurrection, which unsuccessfully sought to stop Congress's certification of the Electoral College results showing Trump losing to President Biden.

Comment: What the FBI claims to have found:

Prosecutors charge that Pezzola stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6 by breaking a window with the shield of a Capitol police officer, ultimately "allowing the first group of rioters to stream through."

"The defendant's actions show planning, determination, and coordination," the court documents state. "His stated desire to commit further acts of violence, combined with his access to weapons-and-bomb-making manuals, is extremely concerning."

At the time of Pezzola's arrest on Jan. 15, the FBI executed a search warrant at Pezzola's home and discovered a thumb drive with hundreds of PDF files, including a "significant" sum that "provided detailed instructions for making homemade firearms, poisons, and/or explosives," the court papers state.

Prosecutors are seeking to have the court order the pre-trial detention of Pezzola.

In other arrests regarding the Capitol breach:

Two Pennsylvania women were arrested Friday for allegedly storming the U.S. Capitol building during the Jan. 6 breach and expressing intent to kill Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Dawn Bancroft and Diana Santos-Smith are facing three charges of knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority, violent entry, and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

In a Friday affidavit, an FBI special agent described how cellphone footage, apparently filmed by Bancroft, show the pair exiting the Capitol.

"We broke into the Capitol...we got inside, we did our part," Bancroft, who wore a MAGA ski-cap, says in the video. "We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin' brain but we didn't find her."

But when prosecutors interviewed Santos-Smith, who is also depicted in the affidavit wearing a red MAGA baseball cap, on Jan. 20, she denied ever entering the building. They later showed her a video of the two of them in the Capitol, at which point she allegedly admitted she "lied" and said they didn't "have a pre-planned agenda."

Santos-Smith also said that when she and Bancroft approached the Capitol, they heard other pro-Trump supporters yelling, "They're letting us in," which she claimed to interpret as being "allowed" in. Though she and Bancroft tried to enter at various locations, they climbed through a broken window.

Santos-Smith told prosecutors that she "knew that they should not be going inside the building" and alleged that neither of the women entered any offices or either chamber. She claimed the pair of them left "approximately 30 seconds to one minute" after entering the building through the same window they came in.

Bancroft, who took the video, sent the footage to her children but then deleted it and advised them to do the same. She provided the authorities with additional footage and images she took from the day.

Additional threats were forthcoming:

Pezzola was later seen on video inside the Capitol with a cigar, having what he called a "victory smoke," and boasting that he "knew we could take this" over. The remarks showed Pezzola "invested a significant personal effort to take over the Capitol and that he did so in coordination with others."

An unidentified witness told the FBI that Pezzola was with a group at the Capitol whose members said they would have killed anyone they got hold of, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and then-Vice President Mike Pence, according to prosecutors. The witness added that people in the group said they'd return on the "20th" and kill everyone they could. The presidential inauguration was Jan. 20.

Pezzola, 43, served six years stateside in the Marines as an infantryman and was discharged in 2005 at the rank of corporal, service records show. His lawyer has said his client is self-employed and a family man.

Pepe, 31, was photographed inside the Capitol and later identified as a Metro-North Railroad train yard laborer who had called in sick to go to Washington for a Jan. 6 protest by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, according to a Jan. 11 criminal court complaint. Pepe, who lives in Beacon in New York's Hudson Valley, has since been suspended without pay from his job at the New York City-area commuter railroad.