In a debate with Joe Biden in late September 2020 – several weeks before the presidential election – then US president Donald Trump came under pressure to denounce far-right violence.
“Who would you like me to condemn?” Trump asked, insisting he wanted to see peace but arguing that most violence seemed to come from the political left.
Biden immediately suggested a right-wing group known as The Proud Boys.
Trump then said: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.”
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Trump did not specify what the group should stand by for.
However, by all accounts Proud Boys’ members were delighted at being mentioned directly by the president.
A couple of months later, after Trump lost the election and on the day the US Congress was scheduled to certify the victory of Biden, several thousand Trump supporters, including some Proud Boys, descended on the US Capitol in Washington and stormed the building.
[ Report: Jury convicts four Proud Boy members of seditious conspiracyOpens in new window ]
The Proud Boys had been known for street fights with left-wing activists for a number of years.
But prosecutors maintained that after the 2020 election the group viewed itself as “Trump’s army” and was prepared for “all-out war” to stop Biden from moving into the White House.
On Thursday former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and three other members of the far-right group were convicted of a plot to attack the US Capitol, allegedly in a desperate bid to keep Trump in power.
The four men – who include Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl – were also convicted of conspiring to obstruct the proceedings of the US Congress on January 6th and destroying US government property.
The jury was deadlocked on a charge of seditious conspiracy against a fifth defendant, Dominic Pezzola, but convicted him of obstructing congress’ January 6th proceedings as well as several other felony charges.
In his closing argument in the case prosecutor Conor Mulroe summed up the view of the US government. He argued that the Proud Boys were “lined up behind Donald Trump and willing to commit violence on his behalf”.
The prosecutors’ case centred around hundreds of messages exchanged by Proud Boys in the days leading up to January 6th 2021 peddling Trump’s false claims of a stolen election and trading fears over what would happen when Biden took office.
The conviction of senior figures of the Proud Boys group over their activities at the US Capitol on January 6th 2021 represents a significant milestone in the wide-ranging federal investigation into the events.
They are not the first convictions of members of right-wing organisations in relation to the events on January 6th. However, they mark the end of three of the largest cases taken as part of the overall investigation into the events of that day.
The US department of justice has already secured convictions of a number of key figures in a separate far-right group, the Oath Keepers militia.
Six individuals – including Stewart Rhodes, the organisation’s founder and leader – were convicted of seditious conspiracy.
The sedition charge is rarely used by prosecutors in the United States and dates back essentially to the civil war.
Overall about 1,000 people have been charged by US authorities regarding the attack on the US Capitol.
A key question after the trial will be where this will leave Trump.
The department of justice has appointed a special counsel to take over the federal investigations into Trump’s efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss and his handling of classified documents found in his possession after he left office.
Last week the special counsel Jack Smith personally sat in on evidence provided by former vice-president Mike Pence to a grand jury.
The defendants in the case which ended on Thursday had contended that prosecutors had overstated the role of the Proud Boys on January 6th, while some sought to point the finger at Trump.
Some defence lawyers argued that Trump’s rhetoric did more to inflame supporters than the Proud Boys did. Tarrio’s attorney Nayib Hassan said his client was merely a “scapegoat” for prosecutors’ inability or unwillingness to charge the former president himself.