(CNN)In the federal investigation into the Proud Boys and their role in the Capitol insurrection, the Justice Department is pursuing several members of the organization and arguing in court in recent days that the group poses an active threat to the public.
But prosecutors haven’t publicly connected all the dots yet between the group’s members, leaving Democrats in Congress to fill in these blanks on Wednesday as they made their impeachment case against former President Donald Trump.
At Trump’s trial in the Senate on Wednesday, the Democratic House impeachment managers repeatedly cited the role of the Proud Boys in the insurrection, and tried to connect them to Trump, who infamously refused to condemn them during the 2020 campaign.
The House managers dipped into the voluminous court record to highlight the most militant members of the pro-Trump mob that attacked the Capitol last month. And the Democrats turned one alleged member of the Proud Boys, Dominic Pezzola, into their poster child for the violence, starkly telling senator-jurors that he “came to the Capitol on January 6 with deadly intentions.”
Coincidentally, at the same time Pezzola was being discussed on the Senate floor on Wednesday, federal prosecutors were arguing in court that he was too dangerous to release before trial. A federal judge in DC agreed with that view and ordered him to remain in jail while he awaits trial on an 11-count indictment.
While prosecutors are gradually and slowly unfurling their cases in court, the Democratic House managers are aiming for maximum immediate impact, making their case on TV and in front of one of the most partisan juries imaginable.
Source: DOJ and House managers zero in on Proud Boys’ role in attack
