[WASHINGTON] Enrique Tarrio, the former national leader of the Proud Boys told RedState about the incident that led to his arrest on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol Friday after he and other Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, along with other former J6 prisoners, attempted to enter the Capitol. The arrest followed a peaceful protest by former J6 prisoners on the Capitol grounds more than four years after the Jan. 6, 2021, protests that escalated into violence.
"I got arrested, and then they took me into the Capitol Police station. I was there for a little while, and they're like, we're going to review the footage," said the Miami native, who was sentenced to 22 years in federal lockup in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, protests at the Capitol — despite not being present at the Capitol that day.
"They reviewed the footage. They're like: 'Look, we got to look into this a little bit more, but from what we see, there was contact with you, so maybe you're in the right,'" he said.
Tarrio said he told the police officers that the woman told him that she knew what hotel he was staying at and that the woman had been harassing him from the beginning of today's protest.
The triggering event is when Tarrio swung his arm, knocking a counterprotester's phone from her hand, he said.
"I never react," he said. "Anybody who knows me knows that you could scream at me. You could put a bull horn in my face, you could put the middle finger in my face. I don't care. But what happened was I felt a prick, like a needle on my pinky."
Tarrio said he was trying to avoid trouble.
"I tried to divert, so there was a level of harassment, and hopefully they drop the case after they review the footage because the first thing I did was grab the phone and I slammed it on the floor," he said. "Then, the police officer came and arrested me, but I think they will drop the charges."
When Tarrio swatted her away from him, a Capitol bicycle police officer watching the Proud Boy immediately swung towards him and cuffed him.
Tarrio's family gave me a statement after his arrest Friday.
“Enrique Tarrio Still Did Nothing Wrong!” the statement said. “We are united in our lives with Enrique and know that the government’s injustices must be exposed! That is our fight. This must not continue; we stand with him now and always. Never Give Up!”
Who Was Responsible for Using an Inapplicable Felony Charge Against J6 Defendants?
NEW: DOJ Pushes Back After Anti-Trump Judge Orders J6 Oath Keepers Barred From Capitol
Purple Heart Army veteran Joseph R. Biggs, also a former J6 prisoner, posted on X that Tarrio was set up, because of the conditions, where the Capitol Police hovered over and followed the cluster of J6 protesters and their supporters.
“It seems like they were wanting something to happen, and they were allowing someone to jump in everyone's face,” he said.
“We were having our event. We were peaceful; we were at the Capitol. The police throughout the day had been keeping the protestors back, Biggs said.
“We got further away from the Capitol and stopped to take a picture,” he said.
Biggs, whose J6 sentence was commuted by President Donald Trump to time served, along with the commutations and pardons issued by Trump on Jan. 20, said the Capitol Police seemed eager to see something happen.
“The Capitol Police then allowed agitators to get among us within our group, and it feels like a setup,” he said. “It seems like they were wanting something to happen, and they were allowing someone to jump in everyone's face.”
Biggs said he saw what happened.
“Enrique Tarrio did nothing wrong,” he said.
“All he did was simply say: ‘Hey, get your hand out of my face. Stop,’ and they arrested him, so we need to all call up there and find out what's going on and get Enrique freed because this is complete and total BS.”
Friday's protest began at roughly 1:00 p.m. on the east side of the Capitol grounds, which faces the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress, with the J6ers and their supporters seeming to test the Capitol’s boundaries.
First, at the Capitol Visitors Center, whose entrance for tourists taking the official tours is on the east side but down a set of stairs. Turned away from that entrance, the J6ers walked up the wide paved ramp back up to ground level and moved directly towards the Capitol and its central stairs.
Before they reached within 100 years of the stairs, a line of half a dozen Capitol police officers formed a line and turned the protesters around—although there were regular tourists much closer to the Capitol on the same East Capitol Plaza.
Clearly, the J6ers did not want a confrontation; they were just looking to revisit the site where the turmoil in their lives began.
However, one J6er, Richard “Bigo” Barnett, sentenced to 54 months in federal lockup after being photographed sitting at California Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi's desk, told me he was looking to sit at that desk again.
“I know the way,” he said. “You know what? I sit in it again. It’s my desk, your desk and if I get a chance and I run in the Speaker Johnson, I'll sit in it again today while I shake his hand: ‘Thank you, sir.’”
Waving his pardon from Trump, he said: “All that crap's done. America's back. Bigo’s back — we're going to clean out the swamp.”
The Memphis, Tennessee, native also talked about love.
“My message today is: 'Love your country. Love your Republic,'” he said.
“Remember, we, the people, are the government. We send representatives up there to represent us, not to rule us.”