An FBI informant who marched to the U.S. Capitol with fellow Proud Boys members on Jan. 6 testified on Wednesday that he didn't know of any plans for the far-right extremist group to invade the building and didn't think they inspired the violence that day.
The informant, who identified himself in court only as "Aaron," was a defense witness at the trial of former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants charged with seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors said was a plot to keep Donald Trump in the White House after the 2020 presidential election.
"The crowd did as herd mentality. Not organized," he wrote. The handler's response was redacted from a screenshot that a defense attorney showed to jurors. "Aaron," who was allowed to withhold a last name when he testified, is one of several Proud Boys associates who were FBI informants before or after the Jan. 6 attack. He is the first to testify at the trial, one of the most important to come out of the Justice Department's massive investigation of the Capitol riot.
The informant told jurors that he planned his travel to Washington with members of a Kansas City chapter of the Proud Boys, including at least four who were charged with conspiring to impede the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6. The FBI didn't ask him to go to Washington on Jan. 6 or march with the Proud Boys that day, he said."If there was any violence and all that, they would have wanted to know," he said of the FBI.
But Bertino, a regional leader for the group from North Carolina who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, told jurors that the far-right group plotted to violently prevent Biden from taking office because they were trying to "save the country" from what they feared would be a tyrannical government.
"Do it again," Tarrio responded. In another message, Tarrio urged the Proud Boys to stay at the Capitol on Jan. 6.Also on trial with Tarrio are Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola. Nordean, of Auburn, Washington, was a Proud Boys chapter leader. Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, was a self-described Proud Boys organizer. Rehl was president of the Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia. Pezzola was a Proud Boys member from Rochester, New York.
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