From Vice to the Proud Boys to January 6th

A free magazine from Montreal. A far-right street group. And the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January sixth. They are linked by one man. Here is the story.

Vice began in nineteen ninety-four in Montreal, as a punk and style magazine. Three people ran it: Shane Smith, Suroosh Alvi, and Gavin McInnes.

It grew into Vice Media: a website, a TV channel, and a news show. At its peak in twenty seventeen, the company was valued at five point seven billion dollars.

McInnes left Vice in two thousand eight. A profile at the time said it was over creative differences. He later became a commentator and hosted his own shows.

In September twenty sixteen, McInnes founded the Proud Boys. The group called itself a club for Western chauvinists. Many researchers and news outlets describe it as far-right and known for street fights.

In twenty twenty, Vice’s chief executive told staff that McInnes’s link to the company ended in two thousand eight, and that the Proud Boys had nothing to do with Vice. McInnes has said he cut ties with the group in twenty eighteen.

A Miami man named Enrique Tarrio later became the group’s chairman. In September twenty twenty, at a presidential debate, President Trump was asked to condemn white supremacist groups. He said, Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. The group celebrated. Trump later said he did not know who they were.

In February twenty twenty-one, Canada officially listed the Proud Boys as a terrorist entity.

Then came January sixth, twenty twenty-one. A crowd attacked the Capitol while Congress counted the electoral votes. Court records and news reports say Proud Boys members were among the first to push through police lines. Prosecutors said one member, Dominic Pezzola, used a stolen police shield to break a Capitol window.

Tarrio was not at the Capitol. He had been arrested two days earlier, accused of burning a banner, and was ordered to leave Washington. Prosecutors said he still helped lead the group from afar.

In the spring of twenty twenty-three, a jury convicted four Proud Boys leaders of seditious conspiracy: Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl. Pezzola was cleared of sedition, but convicted of other charges.

What does seditious conspiracy mean? It is a federal crime: plotting to use force against the government, or to stop a law from being carried out. Prosecutors said the group planned to stop the transfer of power. The defendants said they did not plan an attack on the Capitol.

The trial lasted about four months. The judge was Timothy Kelly. At sentencing, he applied a terrorism enhancement to Tarrio’s sentence, even though Tarrio was not at the Capitol. For Biggs and Rehl, he said their conduct amounted to terrorism, but that the enhancement overstated what they did.

Their sentences ran from ten to twenty-two years. Tarrio’s twenty-two years was the longest given to anyone for January sixth. Prosecutors had asked for even more.

On January twentieth, twenty twenty-five, President Trump pardoned about fifteen hundred people charged over the Capitol attack. He also reduced the sentences of fourteen others, including Proud Boys leaders. Tarrio was freed from prison as well.

What does that mean in law? A pardon forgives a federal conviction. A commutation shortens a sentence but leaves the conviction in place. So the leaders with commutations still have their convictions on record.

Supporters of the pardons called the prosecutions political. Critics, including people who defended the Capitol that day, said the pardons erased accountability for violence against police.

Later in twenty twenty-five, five former Proud Boys leaders sued the government for one hundred million dollars. They claim they were wrongly arrested and that agents planted evidence. Those are their allegations, and it is not clear how the case will end. Tarrio has also said he believes he is owed tens of millions from a Justice Department fund.

So how are Vice and the Proud Boys connected? Only through one man, who left the magazine in two thousand eight, and started the group in twenty sixteen. Vice itself went bankrupt in twenty twenty-three, and was sold to a group led by Fortress Investment Group. The Proud Boys name stays tied to January sixth. Same man, two very different stories.