Greetings MW reader! Here’s another Monthly, summarizing some of the developments within the Patriot Movement for February, as reported in the news. Overwhelmingly, this is about January 6 pardons and the antics their members have been up to this past month.
If you want to read last month’s update, you can read that here.
CPAC Hijinx Again
The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was chock full of J6 pardon recipients. According to participant footage and social media posts, nearly 50 J6 pardon recipients attended the conference. Some J6 pardon recipients faced what appeared to be bureaucratic pushback on their attempt to join before CPAC organizers apologized. It is still unclear if this was intentional or genuinely a mistake, but many of those impacted believe they were being deliberately excluded from the event by organizers.
Rhodes, who attended CPAC, said a lot of things to the press. Among those, he said he’d be happy to work for the FBI, a far cry from his stance on the federal agency when he started his militia organization a decade and a half ago.
Radical Reports, a project by tireless researcher Teddy Wilson, hosts a resource on J6 pardons that’s worth perusing for more information and insight.
Tarrio Arrested Again(?)
Enrique Tarrio, who was once ‘chairman’ of the Proud Boys and was pardoned of his seditious conspiracy conviction, got arrested after an altercation on February 21 at the Capitol in DC. Tarrio threw a protester’s phone after a joint press conference with the Oath Keepers, where a slew of J6 pardon recipients spoke, often referencing their group membership through their clothes or detailed in their speeches. Notably, the Proud Boys also lost their legal naming rights to the Black church members of the group vandalized in 2020.
Oath Keeper Caught with Grenades Pardoned, per Trump DOJ
The Department of Justice also released Oath Keeper Jeremy Michael Brown on February 26 after several delays (a handful of conservative outlets expressed their outrage at these hold ups). The DOJ also ruled that Trump’s pardon covers Brown’s Florida conviction. Part of the charges against Brown, a 20-year Army veteran, include him having grenades and stolen classified documents.
Further Reading:
- Hatewatch Staff, writing for the SPLC, offers some thoughts on those Virginia county militia leaders who are in the National Guard
- Carolyn Gallaher, writing for the London School of Economics’s blog, offers some insight into the meaning of the intent behind Trump’s pardons