'You’re not in charge': Tensions flare as convicted Proud Boys leader testifies

A testy exchange erupted in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, as convicted Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was questioned as a witness in a trial against a police officer accused of illegally giving him information, Politico reported.

Tarrio was given one of the longest sentences of any Jan. 6 defendant last year, receiving 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy. Some of the prosecutors involved in putting him away were in the courtroom watching him give testimony at this other trial.

“I don’t want to be in jail any longer,” he said at one point. When federal prosecutor Rebecca Ross asked Tarrio whether he knew if Proud Boys made the journey to the nation's captial on Jan. 6, he replied, “I will not comment on that. This case is not a January 6th case.”

Tarrio continued that he’d invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself if Ross pressed further. The judge, Amy Berman Jackson, noted he waived those rights to testify and said if he continued she may hold him in contempt, according to the report.

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“We’ll agree to disagree,” Tarrio responded.

“You’re not in charge,” Jackson retorted.

Tarrio did not attend the insurrection at the Capitol. Nonetheless, at his trial, prosecutors outlined how he helped orchestrate efforts by the Proud Boys to obstruct the counting of electoral votes for the 2020 presidential election.

The leaders of the Proud Boys, a self-styled "Western Chauvinist" group notorious for their street-brawling tactics, were not the only ones to face seditious conspiracy convictions; that fate also befell leaders of the far-right militia the Oath Keepers, with the organization's head Stewart Rhodes getting 18 years.

Around 1,300 people have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 attack — the largest number of arrests for a single criminal act in U.S. history. While a handful of people were charged with serious offenses like seditious conspiracy or assaulting police officers, the vast majority received misdemeanor charges such as unlawful picketing or disorderly conduct.

President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly floated the desire to pardon people who staged the attack, although he has been unclear how many people would fall under this pardon and how he would decide.