Pardoned Jan. 6 rioters get mixed reception at CPAC

WASHINGTON >> Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, was among a group of pardoned Jan. 6 defendants who were denied access to CPAC, the conservative political event, when it opened this week, drawing fierce criticism from one of President Donald Trump’s most die-hard constituencies.

The conference was held just one month after Trump offered clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack in 2021. Many of the defendants had scraped together money for plane tickets and lodging, traveling from cities across the country to celebrate their pardons in what they assumed would be a friendly space.

But on Wednesday, when Tarrio arrived at CPAC, which is being held in a conference center at the National Harbor in Maryland, he was quickly told by security officials that he would not be able to attend. Another member of the Proud Boys, Dominic Pezzola, who had used a stolen police riot shield to smash a window at the Capitol, was also told that he could not take part.

Other pardoned rioters ran into trouble, prompting outbursts of anger in the convention center’s lobby and online.

“I got an unconditional pardon from President Trump and my case was dismissed so I just don’t understand why CPAC would do this to me,” said Richard Barnett, who is perhaps best known for carrying an electric cattle prod inside the Capitol and sitting with his feet up at a desk in former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”

On Thursday morning, after a flurry of attacks by outraged rioters, CPAC officials issued a cowed and apologetic statement, saying they supported the pardoned defendants and denying that they were keeping any from attending the event.

“It is untrue that we are not allowing people to come to CPAC because of their involvement with J6,” the statement said. “In fact, CPAC has been a constant supporter of this persecuted community and we support wholeheartedly President Trump’s pardons of the J6 victims.”

By Thursday afternoon, after complaining loudly about his own plight, Barnett was given an official CPAC badge and told that he was welcomed. Still, he seemed a little singed by his initial rejection. He posted a photo of himself wearing the badge with a caption that read, “Well they couldn’t take the heat! Thanks all!”

While some of the pardoned rioters had trouble getting into the event, others seemed to have had no problem at all. In a surreal scene, the corridors of the conference center were jammed with Jan. 6 defendants comparing notes on the prisons they spent time in and discussing their plans for their post-pardon futures.

Guy Wesley Reffitt, a former Texas militiaman who was the first defendant to go on trial for Jan. 6-related charges, reminisced about the proceeding on Wednesday afternoon with some of the reporters who covered it.

A few hours later, Ryan Samsel, the first rioter who confronted the police that day, shared drinks at the bar with Pezzola, Tarrio and three other Proud Boys — Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Ethan Nordean. The five Proud Boys were tried together on seditious conspiracy charges in U.S. District Court in Washington two years ago and had been sentenced to significant prison time before Trump granted them clemency.

Since getting out last month, the men have been mulling their next steps.

Rehl said that he might run for Congress in a district outside Philadelphia, his hometown. Biggs said he wants to get a job in media. Nordean has recently been promoting a new Proud Boys crypto coin. And Pezzola said he would like to file a lawsuit seeking damages for the time he spent in prison.

“I can’t wait until this Jan. 6 thing is over,” he said. “The plan is: sue the government and then vanish into obscurity.”

As for Tarrio, he was allowed into CPAC on Thursday afternoon. But even if he had not been let in, he had something else set up for Friday afternoon.

He and his fellow Proud Boys, he said, were planning to hold a news conference at — of all places — the Capitol.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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