United States | Politics and mercy

Following Trump’s pardons, the Proud Boys are back in the game

Enrique Tarrio tells The Economist he is still figuring out what is next for the group

Pro-Trump protesters gather in front of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Photograph: Getty Images
|Raleigh, North Carolina

THIS IS A big one,” Donald Trump said as he signed a clemency order for nearly 1,600 January 6th rioters just hours after being sworn into office. By evening Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, a far-right group, who had served three years of a 22-year sentence in federal prison for choreographing the attack on the Capitol, was in a holding cell in Louisiana awaiting release. Back in Miami, Mr Tarrio says that a full pardon was what he expected “from day one after the election”.

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