The MeidasTouch Podcast - Proud Boys BLAME Trump during Opening Statements at Criminal Trial

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Starting point is 00:00:50 free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. I'm Ben Mycelis from the Midas Touch Network. The criminal seditious conspiracy trial in federal court in Washington, D.C. against the terrorist group known as the Proud Boys is underway. Opening statements took place on Thursday. James McCullough, the assistant United States attorney, is representing the prosecutor's office in this prosecution of these five terrorists. Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the terrorist network. Ethan Norty and Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rell and Dominic Pozzola. Tarrio was the only one not there during the January 6th insurrectionists. The others were, some of them were violent insurrectionists who were seen on TV, charging Officer Goodman. I mean,

Starting point is 00:01:36 you see these terrorists engaged in these despicable acts and the prosecutors have their hands on not just these absurd and disgusting statements that these individuals made publicly, but they also got their hands on private telegram chats where these terrorists were bragging about the insurrection and taking down the government and taking down Biden. And guess what? The prosecutor began playing and showing all of the messages and videos of these individuals at trial for the jury in the opening statement. James McCullough did an incredible job in his opening statement going through those chats. And it's kind of slam dunk, slam dunk smoking gun evidence. One of the other things that the prosecutor played during the opening of note was Donald Trump's statement during the debate with President Biden, where Trump said to the Proud

Starting point is 00:02:31 Boys, stand back and stand by, and said how that influenced the Proud Boys who responded. Enrique Tarrio said, one of these social media platforms, he goes, I'm standing by right now. And Joseph Biggs responded like ready for the call for action. The prosecutor said is quote, you will see private communications. You will see their public statements. You will see their coordinated actions. You will see their celebration of the group's activities and an attempt to cover up their tracks. You will know by the way they took direct aim at the electoral college certification that this was the result of an agreement. The prosecutor went on to say, led by Enrique Tarrio, these men joined together and agreed to use any means necessary,

Starting point is 00:03:13 including force, to stop Congress from certifying the election. On January 6th, they took aim at the heart of our democracy. And one of the things that McCullough also pointed out is one of the things that Tarrio said was, quote, if Biden steals this election, the Proud Boys are going to be political prisoners. We won't go quietly, I promise. And then there are other messages from them saying, go effing do it. Go check out the Capitol. There's like messages that lay out like the plot, essentially minute by minute. And then afterwards, like Ethan Nortey and Bragg, I was part of the effing storming of

Starting point is 00:03:53 the Capitol in the most powerful country in the effing world. If you're going to lecture me on what's important right now, shut the eff up. I mean, statements like that. You have Rel, one of the other defendants. I'm proud as F at what we accomplished yesterday. We lost our country. We should have held the Capitol. And Biggs, we're going to have a civil war now, firing squads for the traitors that are trying to steal this election from the American people. And part of the seditious conspiracy plot is their effort

Starting point is 00:04:22 literally to overthrow our democracy, the coordinated effort that was made there. And look, the prosecutors have successfully prosecuted the other terrorist group, the Oath Keepers. Their two top leaders were convicted of seditious conspiracy counts like Stuart Rhodes, going to be serving a very, very, very long time in prison. Seditious conspiracy count, 20 years in prison, obstruction, 20-year prison. These people may be facing jail, likely facing jail for the rest of their life. And when you go through the arguments being made by the terrorist groups here, these Proud Boys, they fall into a number of categories. Some of them blame Trump and they say it's Trump's fault. You don't see Donald Trump here. That's one of the points of attack there that they try to basically say, look, this wouldn't have happened if Donald

Starting point is 00:05:13 Trump was there. Donald Trump's not a trial. It's what Enrique Tarrio said. He goes, quote, President Trump told these people the election was stolen. Trump told to go there on january 6th and it was trump in his speech on january 6 that unleashed this mob but he's not here on trial today it was trump and trump alone in his speech on january 6 that unleashed this mob again where is he he's not on trial today you know repeating that over and over again during the opening statement. And what Enrique Tarrio's lawyer tried to argue to the jury is really what happened here. He says, Tarrio is being scapegoated here. One of the other defendants' lawyers over here took a little bit of a different approach and said, this is a guy named Attorney Roger Roots, who did the Pozzola opening statement.

Starting point is 00:06:05 Now, Pozzola smashed two of the Capitol windows with a riot shield, which ignited one of the breaches of the Capitol. I mean, Pozzola was one of the first people in there. This is what Roots said. He goes, this entire case is about a six-hour delay of Congress from 2 o'clock to 6 o'clock. It's just six hours here. That's all that took place. And he goes, yeah, it may look pretty bad, but at the end of the day, how could this be obstruction? He also says, well, my client didn't commit robbery here.

Starting point is 00:06:34 What are you talking about? There's no real crimes at issue. That's basically what Roots does. And they kept playing this weird video of like Roots in the Capitol, like committing the crime. And then the lawyer went to the jury and said, this is the not guilty video. When you, when do your not guilty verdict, this is what I want you to show everyone. This is the not guilty video. Like very, very, very strange opening statement by Pozzolo's attorney. And as you go through all these other

Starting point is 00:07:07 opening statements, I mean, some very strange things. The first witness to testify was on Friday, Thomas Lloyd, Capitol Police officer. And he basically said that thanks to the bravery and courage of Eugene Goodman, the Capitol Police officer who directed the insurrectionist away from the members of Congress, that if the insurrectionist went where they were originally heading, there were armed Capitol Police officers and Secret Service agents who were protecting the members of Congress. So if they got through, there would have been a gun battle. And Eugene Goodman saved that from happening. So there you have it, folks. One other thing to mention, Joe Biggs, his lawyer didn't give

Starting point is 00:07:52 an opening statement. They deferred the opening statement. They don't have to give an opening statement. And so there you have it. But one of the most interesting things there is the lawyer accusing Donald Trump, I mean, for Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys. Like, are you kidding me? I think one of the things the prosecutors have done also, they've watched what worked. One of the things I noticed, they watched what worked during the Oathkeeper seditious conspiracy trial. And here, noting that the jury really related to these encrypted messages, the heavy focus here was showing this jury those telegraph messages where the people were admitting essentially to being terrorists, to the seditious conspiracy.

Starting point is 00:08:36 And then you just had a bunch of really weird and bizarre lawyers representing these Proud Boys and then Tarrio's lawyer blaming Trump. So we're going to keep following this case. It goes back in action on Tuesday. So we'll keep you posted here, of course, on the Midas Touch Network. Hit the subscribe button. We're on our way to 1 million subscribers thanks to your support. Check us out at patreon.com slash Midas Touch. You'll love the content on Patreon, and it helps grow this independent platform. Until next time, I'm Ben Micellis. At Midas Touch, we are unapologetically pro-democracy, and we demand justice and accountability. That's why we're spreading our message to convict45. That's right, gear up right now with your convict45 tees and pins at store.midastouch.com. That's store.midastouch.com.

The MeidasTouch Podcast - Proud Boys BLAME Trump during Opening Statements at Criminal Trial

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