A defendant within the Proud Boys seditious conspiracy case lashed out at prosecutors from the witness stand on Thursday, attacking them for conducting what he described as a “corrupt trial” marred by “fake charges.”
The outburst by the defendant, Dominic Pezzola, got here throughout testimony that was meant to humanize him for the jury however appeared as a substitute to reveal his combative nature. In a tense back-and-forth with a prosecutor, Mr. Pezzola — who was among the many first rioters to enter the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — additionally sought to minimize the violence of that day, saying that the gang that compelled its approach into the constructing was not “an invading force,” however merely “trespassing protesters.”
The indignant testimony emerged because the trial — now in its fourth month in Federal District Court in Washington — was lastly winding down. Each of the defendants rested because the day got here to an finish on Thursday. Closing arguments may start as early as Friday.
A former Marine and a veteran boxer, Mr. Pezzola first took the witness stand on Tuesday, telling the jury that he needed to testify — at all times a dangerous gamble — “to take responsibility for my actions on Jan. 6.”
He shortly fell on his sword, insisting that any acts of violence he took half in that day, he dedicated on his personal and that his co-defendants — Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl — “should not be roped into” his “actions.”
Among the 5 males on trial, Mr. Pezzola was arguably essentially the most violent on Jan. 6, struggling with a police officer within the crowd exterior the Capitol and finally making off together with his plastic riot protect. After Mr. Pezzola used the protect to smash a window on the constructing, he rushed inside with the primary wave of rioters and took a video of himself smoking what described as a “victory” cigar.
He sought to clarify all of this to the jury by claiming that his navy coaching as an infantryman had merely kicked in at a second of excessive stress.
“In a situation like this,” he stated on Wednesday, “total saturation of adrenaline enters your body — almost like being on autopilot.”
Well earlier than the trial started, the protection had promised a strong case rebutting the federal government’s claims that the 5 Proud Boys had dedicated sedition by forcibly disrupting the certification of the 2020 election that was going down contained in the Capitol on Jan. 6.
It appeared at first as if the entire defendants may testify, however after a number of different protection witnesses — together with some Proud Boys who weren’t charged within the case — struggled throughout cross-examination, the protection legal professionals scaled again their ambitions, and solely Mr. Pezzola and Mr. Rehl determined to take the stand.
Mr. Rehl testified for 2 days final week and two days this week, telling the jury that despite the fact that he was a pacesetter with the Proud Boys — he as soon as ran the group’s Philadelphia chapter — he was unaware of any plans to storm the Capitol or to disrupt the certification of the election.
His lawyer, Carmen Hernandez, additionally sought to painting him because the least aggressive of the 5 defendants, getting him to testify repeatedly that he by no means broke something or damage anybody throughout the riot. The gambit appeared to work, at the least till Mr. Rehl reacted testily to a newly discovered video the federal government performed for the jury that confirmed somebody who resembled him apparently capturing some form of spray on the police.
Mr. Pezzola’s testimony adopted the same trajectory.
When he first took the stand, he echoed Mr. Rehl’s rivalry that the Proud Boys couldn’t be responsible of conspiracy as a result of that they had no plan on Jan. 6.
“Our only plans,” he stated, joking in regards to the group’s well-known style for alcohol, “were maybe to storm the liquor store.”
But Mr. Pezzola appeared to lose his cool underneath questions from Erik Kenerson, one of many prosecutors on the case. Their conflict started when Mr. Kenerson led Mr. Pezzola via a sequence of questions on his perception within the weeks main as much as Jan. 6 that “civil war was imminent” and that there was a “battle” afoot “between good and evil.”
“You thought the other side was trying to destroy your way of life?” Mr. Kenerson requested.
“It’s not a thought; it was a fact,” Mr. Pezzola responded. “They were attacking us daily.”
Then Mr. Kenerson pushed a bit additional.
“You wanted to stand first on the line to protect who you love and what you stand for?” he requested.
Mr. Pezzola answered with an indignant retort.
“That’s correct,” he stated, “but that’s in line with standing against this corrupt trial with your fake charges.”
Minutes earlier, the 2 males had gone at one another in the same method when Mr. Kenerson learn the jury a passage from Mr. Pezzola’s diary. In the quoted portion, Mr. Pezzola was complaining about authorities restrictions put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic and the way he felt his household and his nation have been underneath assault from “radical socialists.”
“I’m just starting to see success with my business,” Mr. Pezzola, who owns a ground tiling firm, wrote. “But now it’s being threatened with unconstitutional lockdowns and a tyrannical government.”
Mr. Pezzola responded to the passage being learn aloud by calling the continuing “a fake trial.”
“You’ve got a lot of opinions, don’t you?” Mr. Kenerson shot again.
Source: www.nytimes.com