Manufactured Evidence Planted on Enrique Tarrio to Frame Him and Other Proud Boys Defendants, Defense Alleges

Court filing alleges "outrageous government misconduct" with key document

Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, then leader of The Proud Boys, holds a U.S. flag at a protest showing support for Cubans demonstrating against their government, in Miami, Fla., on July 16, 2021. EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI/AFP via Getty Images

The most damning piece of evidence in the trial of five members of the Proud Boys was created by the U.S. intelligence community and planted on defendant Enrique Tarrio to frame him and others for alleged Jan. 6 crimes, an explosive defense motion alleges.

Filed on Feb. 10 by an attorney for Proud Boys defendant Dominic Pezzola, the motion asks U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly to declare a mistrial due to “outrageous government misconduct.”

The controversy surrounds a document titled “1776 Returns” that federal prosecutors contend is a blueprint for the Proud Boys to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. That document was messaged to Tarrio, although defense attorneys say there is no evidence he opened, read, or forwarded it.

‘Government-Created Scheme’

“It appears that the government itself is the author of the most incriminating and damning document in this case, which was mysteriously sent at government request to Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio immediately prior to January 6 in order to frame or implicate Tarrio in a government-created scheme to storm buildings around the Capitol,” defense attorney Roger Roots wrote in a seven-page document filed with the court.

Charged in the case are Tarrio, Pezzola, Zachary Rehl, Ethan Nordean, and Joseph Biggs. The Proud Boys defendants are on trial in the U.S. District Court in Washington, accused of seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct official proceedings, obstruction of official proceedings, and conspiracy to prevent certain federal officers from performing their duties on January 6. Tarrio, Rehl, Nordean, and Biggs face nine criminal counts, while Pezzola is charged with 10.

The trial is about to enter its fifth week in Kelly’s courtroom.

Attorney Steven Metcalf (2nd L), representing seditious conspiracy defendant Dominic Pezzola for his alleged role in the attacks of Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol, arrives at the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse on Dec. 19, 2022. Win McNamee/Getty Images

On Feb. 9, FBI Special Agent Peter Dubrowski testified that the “1776 Returns” document was sent to Tarrio on the messenger chat app Telegram by Erika Flores, an “erstwhile romantic interest,” on or around Dec. 29, 2020.

The PDF describes plans to “Storm the Winter Palace,” a reference to the Russian revolution in 1917. Assistant U.S. Attorney Conor Mulroe elicited testimony from Dubrowski that the document described a plan to “lay siege to Capitol Hill by strategically occupying most of the congressional office space around the Capitol,” the motion stated.

A member of the U.S. intelligence community testified before the now-defunct January 6 House Select Committee that portions of “1776 Returns” were taken from a document he authored in August or September 2020 to map out possible scenarios if there were chaos surrounding the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Samuel Armes, who has done work for the U.S. State Department and the Special Operations Command, located at MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa, Florida, told the Select Committee he gave Flores a copy of his war game scenario document. He testified that he first met Flores in an online cryptocurrency group in 2017.

Armes testified that at the University of South Florida, he had been “groomed to join the CIA and FBI.” He told the Select Committee that he did not write “1776 Returns,” but some of his war game document was included in it.

Get Document to Tarrio

According to the defense motion, Flores told the Jan. 6 Select Committee that Armes wrote the entire “1776 Returns” document and asked her to give it to Tarrio. In his appearance before the Select Committee on July 18, 2022, Armes denied authorship and asserted that Flores was “blame-shifting” and “throwing [him] under the bus.”

“I can confidently say I’ve never seen this document in my life,” Armes said, according to the official hearing transcript. “It uses stuff that I talked about, but even the name, I’ve never even heard of the name, right? So, yeah, I’m just a scapegoat, I guess, is the best way to word it.”

Armes testified that he met Tarrio in person “maybe twice” through Flores, but that Tarrio was not a friend of his.

Proud Boys defendant Ethan Nordean (right, mirror shades) was among protesters on the west side of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. U.S. Department of Justice/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

“Was never interested in pursuing any kind of a relationship, as I was pretty familiar with what he stands for and represented, so I kept my distance,” Armes told the January 6 committee.

According to defense attorney Roots, if Flores’s testimony about “1776 Returns” is true, “this means the most damning document in this trial was authored by the intelligence community—someone ‘groomed’ by the FBI itself. And this CIA and FBI asset requested Tarrio’s friend to share the document with Tarrio just prior to January 6.”

The motion asks for an immediate evidentiary hearing on the origins and authorship of “1776 Returns,” which Judge Kelly ruled in December 2022 could be admitted as evidence in the trial.

If the information presented in the motion is deemed true by Judge Kelly, Roots wrote, the solution would be a “mistrial and dismissal of this entire case, with prejudice.”

“This is either entrapment or outrageous government conduct, or both,” Roots wrote. “Equally improper, it is a Brady [exculpatory evidence] violation because the Department of Justice must surely have known these revelations before putting Special Agent Dubrowski on the stand on February 9 to introduce this evidence.”

Federal prosecutors have not yet filed a response to the motion. The trial is scheduled to resume on Feb. 13.