Thousands of Donald Trump’s supporters, including Proud Boys members, storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in support of baseless claims that Trump, not Joe Biden, had won the 2020 presidential election. Five people worked with Proud Boys from Kansas City and other unnamed individuals to breach the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, U.S. prosecutors alleged, unsealing charges Thursday in one of the largest co-defendant cases yet brought in an investigation in which more than 200 have been charged. The defendants, wearing helmets, vests and tactical gear marked with fluorescent orange tape, “appeared to gesture and communicate to one another” to coordinate efforts during and after forcing entry to the Capitol, the FBI alleged. Surveillance footage showed at least four taking actions to prevent police from deploying descending metal barriers to seal off underground access to the Capitol, allowing the invading crowd to surge forward, the FBI said in a 28-page affidavit dated Wednesday. The arrests of William Chrestman, Christopher Kuehne, Louis Enrique Colon, all of Kansas City, and siblings Felicia and Cory Konold bring the number of those affiliated with the Proud Boys to nearly 18 among those charged with battling law enforcement and obstructing the electoral vote confirmation of President Biden’s victory.
Federal prosecutors and the FBI have accused self-identified Proud Boys of leading some of the earliest, most destructive and critical efforts to overrun police lines and break into the Capitol building. Two have been charged with counts listed as federal crimes of terrorism, relating to destruction of government property to intimidate or coerce the government. Charges for the Kansas City group were unsealed after all five were taken into custody. Information about their lawyers was not available, and efforts to contact relatives were not immediately successful. The Proud Boys, a far-right group with a history of violence, was embraced by former president Donald Trump during the election campaign, and it mobilized to attend the Jan. 6 events in D.C. Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, who was arrested two days earlier for allegedly having burned a Black Lives Matter banner torn down from a historic church during a previous rally in Washington, has pleaded not guilty and denied that the Proud Boys organized any violence at the Capitol.
via washingtonpost: Five more charged in Capitol riot allegedly teamed with Kansas City Proud Boys