In recent weeks, prosecutors have introduced as evidence in the latest case a video of a meeting in an underground parking garage near the Capitol among Tarrio, Rhodes and Kellye Sorelle, an attorney who has worked with the Oath Keepers, on the eve of the rioting. Leaders of two right-wing groups, Joshua Macias of Vets for Trump, a scheduled speaker the following day, and Bianca Gracia, head of Latinos for Trump and a Jan. 6 event organizer with White House ties, were also at the meeting.
Snippets of audio released do not capture what the group discussed. Tarrio has said he was only interested in connecting with Sorelle because she was a “good attorney” after he was released from jail and ordered to leave Washington pending trial for a separate incident, the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner stolen from a church in the District in late 2020 after a different pro-Trump rally. Tarrio pleaded guilty in the banner-burning case and completed a four-month jail term earlier this year.
Meanwhile, multiple Oath Keepers members provided security for Trump confidant Roger Stone on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, court records show, while at previous pro-Trump rallies he surrounded himself with Proud Boys, including Tarrio, who has served as an aide to Stone.
In the Oath Keepers case, a defendant this spring made public the transcript of a Nov. 9, 2020, videoconference call of the Oath Keepers, in which Rhodes has Sorelle debrief members on “multiple pods working” to challenge Biden’s election victory. Sorelle said those in the pods included the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee, QAnon supporters and the legal team of Rudy Giuliani.
I very helpfully put that last paragraph in bold for you--this wasn't spur of the minute, and people in the Trump campaign were aware. But this was telegraphed earlier, wasn't it? I mean, during the debate back in September 2020, Trump darkly hinted that there was going to be a use for them in the future. You know, in the same way he hinted that he wouldn't accept the results of any election he didn't win.
He was never going to accept a loss and potentially violent options were on the table--including sending armed people to gather the voting machines. You know, because just like people, if you don't get the numbers you want from the machines, try to shake 'em down harder.
This was a thugocracy, and the people still covering up for it and trying to distract from what had taken place are scoundrels.
2 comments:
Look on that white-boy's face, shaking Enrique Tarrio's thoroughly tanned hand, speaks volumes. Should have stuck with his ample gut, not gotten mixed up with someone he wouldn't have otherwise gotten mixed up with. Conspiracy 101; three-unit cells, go with what you know.
I'm not unconvinced "Enrique" is an agent provocateur, trolling the nutballs and is about to disappear into a comfortable retirement on a villa somewhere out on one the outer islands ... under the witness protection program. If he's not deep-cover FBI.
Tarrio is a very strange case--he's been known to be an informant (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-proudboys-leader-exclusive/exclusive-proud-boys-leader-was-prolific-informer-for-law-enforcement-idUSKBN29W1PE) and was not actually at the 1/6 riot because he was elsewhere owing to a previous and lesser bit of racially motivated vandalism. Which could very well be cover. Also, like many of these figures, he was very blatant about what he was trying to encourage. Was he sort of telegraphing & memorializing something that might have otherwise been kept more clandestine if he was doing this seriously and not as part of a long-term bust? I'm not sure, and in retrospect, it says a lot for the general intelligence of this production number that more people didn't bail out because it was too freaking "out there". Yet everyone was making social media. Of a coup attempt. I will not get over that. As if it was only treason if they didn't prosper, and they all pretty much were privileged enough to think they definitely would.
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