The leader of the Proud Boys, who was arrested shortly before the Capitol riot in Washington, previously worked undercover and collaborated with investigators after being charged with fraud in 2012, court documents show.
Henry “Enrique” Tarrio assisted law enforcement officers in several investigations nearly a decade ago by providing information and going undercover, the data shows.
The Proud Boys is a far-right male chauvinist extremist group that has a grip on Trump administration policies and has been a major agitator during past protests and the Capitol uprising on January 6. to tear down the current government system, and so Tarrio’s revelations as a federal informant came as quite a surprise.
The details of Tarrio’s cooperation, first reported by Reuters on Wednesday, were found in a transcript of a 2014 hearing in federal court in Florida regarding his sentence for participating in a diabetic test strip resale plan .
Tarrio’s prosecutor and attorney both cited Tarrio’s extensive cooperation in arguing that his 30-month sentence should be reduced. The judge agreed to reduce his sentence to 16 months, the data shows.
“Your Honor, frankly, in all the years, now over 30 that I have been doing this, I have never had a client so prolific in terms of cooperation in any way,” said Tarrio’s attorney at the time, Jeffrey Feiler, according to the transcript.
An email asking for comment was not immediately returned by a lawyer representing Tarrio in his current case. In an interview with Reuters, Tarrio denied ever cooperating with the authorities.
Following Tarrio’s charge in 2012, he helped the government prosecute more than a dozen other people, the federal prosecutor told the judge, the transcript said. Tarrio’s attorney said he was the first defendant to cooperate in the case and was also involved in several undercover police operations involving things like anabolic steroids and prescription narcotics.
“From day one, he was the one who wanted to talk to law enforcement, clear his name, get this right so he could move on with his life. And he actually cooperated in a significant way, ”the prosecutor said according to the transcript.
Tarrio was arrested in Washington on Jan. 4, two days before the pro-Trump crowd stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory.
He was charged with smashing a Black Lives Matter banner in a historic black church during an earlier protest in the nation’s capital. The banner was ripped off the property of Asbury United Methodist Church, ripped and set on fire in December.
According to a police report, Tarrio was seen with the sign-in video of the incident on YouTube. When police persuaded Tarrio, officers found two blank magazines with the Proud Boys logo in his bag with a capacity of 30 rounds each, authorities said.
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Richer reported from Boston. Associated Press reporter Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Florida, contributed to this report.