On Thursday, attorneys for one of the 5 Proud Boys members accused of seditious conspiracy concerning the incident on January 6 defended their client’s case. They cited Capitol security video shown on Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson’s show as evidence.
In a court statement, the attorneys representing Proud Boys member Dominic Pezzola stated that the video “is exculpatory; since it reveals that the Senate chamber wasn’t ever forcefully assaulted, and it was handled politely by January 6 protestors”. “Protesters who entered the chamber did so under the close watch of Capitol Police. On January 6, the Senators may have resumed the discussion.”
The attorneys requested that US District Judge Timothy Kelly dismiss the accusation, which claims that Pezzola and 4 other Proud Boys teamed up to prevent Congress from approving the results of the 2020 presidential election. They claimed that federal prosecutors “denied” the surveillance video from their client.
Pezzola, by the prosecution, was among the first rioters to attack the Capitol on January 6 and break a glass panel with a police shield that had been seized from the scene. Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, and Zachary Rehl, the other defendants, have entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf.
40,000 hours of Capitol surveillance tape were handed to Carlson by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for his Monday night broadcast, highlighting only a few clips from that footage.
