Former Proud Boys national leader Enrique Tarrio was arrested Friday near the U.S. Capitol on charges of assaulting a protester following a gathering attended by individuals who had received presidential pardons for crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
According to Capitol police, officers witnessed Tarrio strike a protester’s cellphone and arm after the woman held her phone close to his face as they walked near the Capitol. Tarrio had just left a press conference that had concluded “without incident,” police said.
“The woman told our officers that she wanted to be a complainant, and the man was arrested for the simple assault,” police stated.
An attorney who previously represented Tarrio in his Capitol riot case did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Tarrio, a Miami resident, was serving a 22-year sentence—the longest imposed in Jan. 6-related cases—when President Donald Trump issued a sweeping clemency order last month for all 1,500-plus individuals charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol.
Tarrio and three of his associates were convicted of seditious conspiracy for orchestrating a violent plot to prevent the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory over Trump in 2020.
On Friday, Tarrio appeared at a press conference alongside other Proud Boys members and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who had also been convicted of seditious conspiracy but was released from prison last month after Trump commuted his 18-year sentence.
The arrest marks another chapter in the ongoing legal and political fallout from the Jan. 6 attack, as key figures involved in the riot continue to make public appearances following their pardons.
