This week, four Proud Boys were found guilty of seditious conspiracy for their involvement in the January 6 attack on the Capitol building. The convicted members were in Washington D.C. for the “Stop The Steal” rally that sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election and certify Donald Trump as the winner.
The verdict, which included Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio, marks a significant escalation in legally acknowledging the January 6 attack as an act of sedition against the United States government. As for how the jury reached that decision, DC resident Andre Mundell opened up about the thought process and the role of deleted messages leading up to the attack.
“That factored in for me,” Mundell told Vice. “It showed an absence of evidence of standing down. No one says, no, don’t do this. We’re not going to do this. There was none of that. And that was probably because they never said it. And the things that were affirming that they were going to be violent. They just kind of let it happen.”
According to Mundell, the jury was quickly convinced the day that they elected a foreman. “We all voted and most people saw the evidence pointed towards seditious conspiracy,” he said before detailing how the jurors came to agree that there was an attempt to “interfere with the government by use of force.” Once again, it came back to the online messages.
“It was all the chatter,” Mundell said. “All the chats. Parler, Telegram… those Telegram text messages back and forth. Not just the chats, but also the private texts. I think that was what it boiled down to. What they had to say prior to Jan. 6 and the fact that they wanted to do so much in secret.”
As for the gravity of the verdict, Mundell definitely feels that it’s “heavy.”
“I think it’s huge,” he said. “It’s something that needed to happen. I definitely think it’s important because otherwise, somebody might get the idea that this is okay to do again.”
(Via Vice)