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The Justice Department on Friday also indicted six members of the far-right nationalist group the Proud Boys with conspiracy to obstruct the certification of President Biden’s electoral victory and to attack law enforcement. The suspects, who had already been charged by criminal complaint, were also accused of threatening a federal officer and entering the Capitol carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon, including a wooden ax handle.
Federal prosecutors said that Louis Enrique Colon of Missouri, Felicia Konold and Cory Konold of Arizona, and William Chrestman, Christopher Kuehne and Ryan Ashlock of Kansas were part of a group of Proud Boys who traveled to Washington in order to “stop, delay, and hinder the congressional proceeding” on Jan. 6.
They did so after Enrique Tarrio, the self-described national chairman of the Proud Boys, identified in the indictment as Person One, said on social media that members should “turn out in record numbers” and “spread across downtown DC in smaller teams.”
The department said that the group coordinated their travel to Washington and stayed together in an Airbnb rental near the city. They brought and wore matching uniforms and carried paramilitary gear and supplies — including camouflaged combat uniforms, tactical vests with plates, helmets, eye protection and radio equipment — into the Capitol, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors accused the group of working together to force their way through a line of Capitol Police and through the barriers around the building. Once inside, they traveled as a group through the building, the department said.
Before entering, some of them, exhorted the large crowd to act. “Whose house is this?” Mr. Chrestman called. The crowd responded, “Our house!” When the crowd yelled to Mr. Chrestman that they wanted their house back, Mr. Chrestman shouted, “Take it!”
He also threatened an officer who was preparing to file nonlethal munitions into the crowd, prosecutors said.
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