An Auburn-area man among a group of Proud Boys leaders accused of orchestrating last year's attack on the U.S. Capitol has been charged with yet another criminal count under a federal indictment unsealed this week.
Ethan Nordean, 31, who already was charged and detained on six criminal counts pending trial for his alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021, siege, now faces a seventh count for "assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers."
The new charge against Nordean was detailed in a 30-page indictment unsealed Tuesday that primarily lays out seven new criminal counts against Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, the Proud Boys' former national chairman.
The indictment alleges that, in the weeks leading up to the Capitol breach, Tarrio created a special chapter of the Proud Boys known as the "Ministry of Self Defense" to plan the attack aimed to thwart Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election results. The group allegedly included Nordean and four other prominent members of the extremist group who already were co-defendants facing multiple federal criminal counts in the case.
Two days before the Capitol siege, Tarrio was arrested on a warrant for destroying a Black Lives Matter banner during a previous Washington, D.C. demonstration. As a condition of his release on Jan. 5, 2021, he was ordered to stay out of the District of Columbia and missed the pro-Trump "Stop the Steal" rally and attack on the Capitol.
"Although Tarrio is not accused of physically taking part in the breach of the Capitol, the indictment alleges that he led the advance planning and remained in contact with other members of the Proud Boys during their breach of the Capitol," according to a press statement issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia.
Among other actions, Tarrio allegedly continued to direct and encourage the Proud Boys prior to and during the events of Jan. 6, the indictment states. He also claimed credit for what had happened on social media and in an encrypted chat room during and after the attack, it says.
Tarrio, 38, was arrested Tuesday in Miami. He and Nordean, along with Joseph Biggs, 38, of Florida; Zachary Rehl, 36, of Pennsylvania; and Charles Donohoe, 34, of North Carolina; face seven criminal counts, including conspiracy. A sixth member of the group, Dominic Pezzola, 44, of New York, faces eight criminal counts, including an additional charge of robbery of personal property of the United States.
Nordean, who is being held at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac, has pleaded not guilty, as have all of his co-defendants.
Nordean is among at least a dozen current or former Washington residents who have been charged in connection with the Capitol attack. In all, more than 775 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach, according to the Department of Justice.
