Enrique Tarrio, the now-former leader of the extremist Proud Boys gang who was just granted clemency by President Donald Trump, celebrated his release from prison on Tuesday by calling into conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ show and calling for retribution.
Up until this week, Tarrio was serving a 22-year prison term after being convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in organizing the January 6 Capitol attack. The far-right streetfighter’s sentence was the longest among the nearly 1,600 people who were charged in connection with the insurrection, which was ignited by Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
However, in one of his first acts after returning to the White House, Trump announced that he was issuing blanket pardons to almost every January 6 defendant, including Tarrio. Trump also commuted the sentences of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes – who was also convicted of seditious conspiracy and serving 18 years in jail — and 13 other members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.
The sweeping pardons, which included at least 600 people charged with assaulting or resisting law enforcement, came after Vice President JD Vance assured the public that “if you committed violence that day,” clemency wouldn’t be given.
“These are the hostages,” Trump said in issuing the pardons. “These people have been destroyed. What they’ve done to these people is outrageous. There’s rarely been anything like in the history of our country.”
Speaking to Jones, a Proud Boys sympathizer who was a key figure in planning the January 6 rally, Tarrio heaped praise on Trump for freeing him and other Proud Boy members from jail. He also expressed no regrets about the Capitol riots, even though he previously apologized for his role in the events.
“I’d like to thank again President Donald J. Trump for helping us through these difficult times and releasing me, Joe Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola. Right? And all the J6ers,” he declared.
Biggs, Rehl and Nordean were all convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to at least 15 years in prison. Pezzola was the only co-defendant who did not receive a seditious conspiracy conviction and was sentenced to 10 years in jail. All of them had their sentences commuted by Trump, who said he would continue to review their cases to see if they also deserved full pardons.
“We went through hell, and I’m gonna tell you, it was worth it, because what we stood for and what those guys stood for was what we’ve been fighting for and what we saw yesterday on the inauguration stage,” Tarrio continued. “I can’t tell you it’s been easy, but I will tell you it’s been worth it.”
Echoing Trump, Tarrio went on to complain about “how this system could be weaponized” before saying Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi and Trump’s FBI pick Kash Patel – who literally published a Deep State “enemies list” in his recent book — would “right all these wrongs.”
Despite saying at his sentencing hearing that he was “not a political zealot” and was sorry for his role on January 6, calling it a “national embarrassment,” Tarrio told Jones that he wanted those who convicted him to pay a price.
“I’m happy that the president’s focusing not on retribution and focusing on success, but I will tell you that I’m not gonna play by those rules,” he exclaimed. “The people who did this, they need to feel the heat. They need to be put behind bars, and they need to be prosecuted!”
Fuming over Joe Biden’s last-minute preemptive pardon of the member of the January 6 House select committee, Tarrio insisted that “they need to be imprisoned” for their participation in the congressional investigation.
“We need to find and put them behind bars for what they did. They need to pay for what they did,” he concluded, prompting Jones to nod in agreement.
“Well, I mean, let’s be clear. Trump talked about getting the economy going and success. That’s key to keeping his support to do the rest,” the Infowars host responded. “But to have our success, we have to put the deep state in prison. Fauci, the traitor Milley, the J6 people.”
