As the Proud Boys seditious conspiracy trial dragged on for weeks longer than anticipated, someone at the defense table doodled in blue pen on a note card a balding man with facial hair, slumped over, looking to one side and saying, “I was 25 when this trial started.”
The five defendants – all in their 30s and 40s – also passed notes with each other and their lawyers about their legal strategy, saying they needed to “solidify arguments” and provide “better explanations” for chat messages that celebrated the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot.
It’s a common sight to see notes being passed during criminal trials as a way to communicate during what can be lengthy proceedings, but those notes are largely kept out of the public eye.
CNN reviewed a number of the handwritten notes written by the far-right Proud Boys and their legal teams that spanned the course of the seditious conspiracy trial – one of the highest-profile and most aggressive prosecutions brought by the Justice Department since the Capitol attack.
The notes passed around the defense table give a rare insight into defendants who appeared anxious about their futures, at times bored with the drawn-out legal fights that plagued the trial, and focused on proving there was no overarching plan to commit sedition.
The 18-week trial concluded last week with the jury in Washington, DC, convicting four of the five – Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl – of seditious conspiracy. Dominic Pezzola was acquitted of that charge but convicted of others, including obstruction of an official proceeding. Tarrio, Nordean, Biggs, Rehl and Pezzola were accused of being part of a wide-ranging plot to violently oppose Joe Biden from becoming president.
Pezzola’s attorney Steven…
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