Jury chosen to hear Proud Boys January 6 sedition trial; members could face 20yrs in jail

Three weeks after the selection got underway, a jury was chosen on Monday for the seditious conspiracy trial of former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four other far-right extremist group members charged with plotting to stop the transfer of presidential power by attacking the U.S. Capitol after the 2020 election, reported AP. Five members of the far-right Proud Boys group will go on trial this week including Proud Boys national leader at the time, Henry "Enrique" Tarrio. The seditious conspiracy charge carries a sentence of up to 20 years.

Jury selection took 10 days of questioning as many potential jurors expressed negative views about the Proud Boys. The panel ultimately chosen includes seven men and nine women, WUSA-TV reported. Tarrio is perhaps the highest-profile defendant to face jurors yet in the attack that halted the certification of Biden's win, left dozens of police officers injured and led to nearly 1,000 arrest. Tarrio, of Miami, and the others — Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, Dominic Pezzola and Joseph Biggs — are charged with several other crimes in addition to seditious conspiracy.

Why are these five on trial?

Alongside Tarrio, who was at the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 and became the group's leader the following year, the Proud Boys on trial are Ethan Nordean, 31, of Washington state, who goes by the alias "Rufio Panman", reported BBC. Nordean was active in street protests and brawls with anti-fascist activists in the Pacific Northwest. In a video from January 6, 2021, he's seen leading members of the group around the Capitol.

Joseph Biggs, 38, of Florida is a US Army veteran and former broadcaster for Alex Jones's Infowars. He was pictured next to Nordean throughout the riot Zachary Rehl, 37, a former US Marine and the leader of the Philadelphia branch of the Proud Boys. Dominic Pezzola, 44, of Rochester in New York state. Prosecutors say Pezzola, also a former US Marine, was one of the first people to reach one of the entrances to the Capitol, where he took a riot shield off a police officer and smashed a window.

(with AP inputs)