Police arrested Enrique Tario, a former leader of the far-right Proud Boys movement, in Washington on Friday, who was previously convicted of planning the Capitol storming and was pardoned by US President Donald Trump in January, the Capitol Police press service said.
Tario was arrested on a street near the Capitol for attacking a woman who held her cellphone up to his face. Tario hit her on the arm, police said. The incident occurred shortly after a news conference at which members of the Proud Boys announced plans to sue the Justice Department for "politically motivated harassment" by the agency.
The woman, whose name has not been released, was part of a group of activists who tried to disrupt the press conference.
A federal district court in Washington in September 2023 sentenced Tario to 22 years in prison for planning the storming of the Capitol. He had previously been found guilty of inciting riots and obstructing the certification of the results of the US presidential election by members of Congress. The sentence is the most severe in the trial for the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
On the same day, Tario was outside Washington. However, other supporters of Trump, who was then US president, stormed the Congress building to prevent the certification of the results of the November 2020 presidential election in the country, won by Biden. During the riots inside the building, police shot and killed a protester.
Immediately after taking office again on January 20, Trump signed an executive order pardoning 1,500 participants in the Capitol storming, including Tario and other members of the "Proud Boys".