Proud Boys’ coordination with Trump campaign

Proud Boys’ coordination with Trump campaign
The Proud Boys, rivaled in magnitude only by the Oath Keepers, provided the engine of the attack on the Capitol. Dozens of the neo-fascist gang’s members have been arrested since Jan. 6, and leaders such as former Chairman Enrique Tarrio have been convicted of seditious conspiracy.


Weeks before the 2020 election, then-President Trump galvanized the Proud Boys and the larger universe of violent pro-Trump extremists when he told them during the Sept. 29 presidential debate: “Stand back and stand by.”


Following outrage over his comment, Trump tried to distance himself from the Proud Boys, telling reporters “they have to stand down,” and that they should “let law enforcement do the work.”


But internal chats submitted into evidence during Tarrio’s seditious conspiracy trial suggest that there was more communication between the former president’s camp and the Proud Boys behind the scenes than Trump may have let on publicly at the time.

Prosecutors introduced a text message from Tarrio to Jeremy Bertino, a trusted Proud Boys lieutenant, on Nov. 8, after major news organizations called the election for Joe Biden.


Enrique Tarrio, then the leader of the Proud Boys, a far-right group, is seen with Jeremy Bertino at a "Stop the Steal" rally against the results of the U.S. presidential election outside the Georgia State Capitol on Nov. 18, 2020 in Atlanta, Ga. (Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)

Bertino reported to Tarrio that he planned to mobilize a group of Proud Boys to rally in support of Trump that afternoon.

Responding to Bertino’s text, Tarrio cautioned: “The campaign asked us to not wear colors to these events.”

Notwithstanding his comment to Bertino, Tarrio has insisted that there was no connection between himself and Trump, who will have the power to pardon him if he is elected president again in 2024. Following his conviction, Tarrio told the New York Times that he met with federal prosecutors in Miami in 2022, and that he refused to implicate Trump in a criminal conspiracy in exchange for leniency.

Bertino, who is still awaiting sentencing, did not respond to a request for comment forwarded through his lawyer.