On Monday, a federal judge ordered two leaders of the Proud Boys to be arrested and jailed as they await their trials, reversing earlier decisions by federal judges who had granted pretrial release of the two men under strict conditions.
Ethan Nordean of Washington state and Joseph Biggs of Florida face charges of conspiring to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election, as well as organizing members of the Proud Boys to enter the Capitol, a public building, on January 6 as part of that effort. They had been free since March 10 — Nordean placed under home confinement.
But Judge Timothy Kelly, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (a Trump appointee), said Nordean and Biggs are too dangerous not to be detained.
“The defendants stand charged with seeking to steal one of the crown jewels of our country, in a sense, by interfering with the peaceful transfer of power,” said Kelly, explaining his decision. “It’s no exaggeration to say the rule of law and … in the end, the existence of our constitutional republic is threatened by it.”
Kelly maintained that new evidence presented by prosecutors showed that the two men played a central role in the January 6 Capitol breach, citing their social-media posts and private communications.
Attorneys for Biggs and Nordean asked Kelly to suspend Monday’s ruling pending a possible appeal, but the judge denied their request.
Zachary Rehl and Charles Donohoe are also charged in the same indictment as Biggs and Nordean, and have been jailed since their arrests in March.
Two days prior to the events at the Capitol, the Proud Boys’ top leader, Enrique Tarrio, was arrested in Washington, D.C. He has not been charged in connection with that day’s breach.
While Kelly acknowledged there was no evidence that either Nordean or Biggs ordered specific criminal acts, such as window-breaking, the judge argued that wasn’t critical to the strength of the case.
“Those things are not necessary for a conspiracy case to be relatively strong,” Kelly said.
The judge noted the challenges of prosecuting a conspiracy case based on circumstantial evidence, yet argued that evidence shows a plan existed.
Biggs and Nordean are among more than two dozen Capitol defendants whom federal authorities have described as Proud Boys leaders, members, or associates. The Proud Boys are known for confronting violent members of the terror group Antifa and for serving as security against Antifa at conservative events.
Yet federal courts and the mainstream media have given little attention to the fact that among those who entered the Capitol on January 6 were individuals linked to Antifa, as confirmed by Senate testimony from the former chief of the Capitol Hill police.
Further proof that Antifa and Black Lives Matter were likely involved in the violence was the arrest of John Sullivan, who has connections to both groups. Police arrested him inside the Capitol that day, and CNN and NBC each paid him $35,000 for his video of the events. Sullivan claims the video — which includes the fatal shooting of unarmed MAGA protester Ashli Babbitt by a Capitol Hill police officer, who has since been cleared of all charges — proves he was merely “acting as journalist.”
It has also been revealed that the infamous “QAnon shaman” Jake Angeli was actually a left-wing climate activist who attended demonstrations endorsing Greta Thunberg.
The prevailing narrative from Democrats and the mainstream media has been that January 6 was an insurrection carried out by supporters of President Trump. However, their description of the actions of those in the Capitol has been shown to be exaggerated.
For example, the media long called Capitol Officer Brian Sicknick a casualty of the “rioters,” yet they have now been forced to admit that he died of natural causes. National Public Radio, quoting the Washington Post, wrote:
Sicknick died after suffering strokes, the Office of Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Francisco Diaz, said in a report.
He did not suffer an allergic reaction to the chemical irritants dispensed by rioters, Diaz told the Post, nor was there evidence of internal or external injuries.
In a statement, the U.S. Capitol Police said it accepts the medical examiner’s finding. “This does not change the fact Officer Sicknick died in the line of duty, courageously defending Congress and the Capitol,” the statement said.
What it does change is the widely parroted notion that he was killed by pro-Trump revolutionaries, a narrative that was used to shut down congressional discussion about election fraud, censor the speech of conservatives throughout the country, and criminally prosecute those in D.C. on January 6.
