Five charged with Proud Boys conspiracy in Capitol riot
Federal prosecutors charged five alleged members of the far-right Proud Boys with criminal conspiracy linked to last month's deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The newly-unsealed criminal complaint accuses the suspects planned to disrupt Congress from certifying the election victory of Joe Biden on January 6.
More than 200 people have been charged with federal offenses in the bloody assault on Congress, which claimed the lives of five people at the Capitol and led to Trump's impeachment trial this week on a charge of inciting insurrection...
Trump: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol."
After he gave a speech urging his supporters to reject the election results.
"We fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."
In charging the five accused Proud Boys, prosecutors said the group’s organizers urged members to head to Washington on the day of certification.
Federal prosecutors also outlined details of a suspected plot by the anti-government Oath Keepers group to stage a "quick reaction force" outside Washington on Jan. 6... ready to (quote) "fight hand to hand" if ordered to do so by Trump.
Prosecutors asked a federal judge to detain Jessica Watkins, whom they describe as the leader of an Ohio-based militia tied to the Oath Keepers, saying she actively recruited people to participate in a coup.
They quote her on Nov. 17, telling a recruit that if Biden was president, then "our Republic would be over. Then it is our duty as Americans to fight, kill and die for our rights.”
Thursday's detention memo for Watkins suggests that some of Trump's most fervent supporters believed he sought to signal them into action.
She wrote: "We can have mace, tasers, or night sticks," noting the armed team would be "outside DC with guns," waiting on orders to enter under permission from Trump.
Watkins, jailed awaiting trial, has yet to enter a plea and could not be reached for comment.
