charles Donohoe of Kernersville, president of the Piedmont North Carolina chapter of the Proud Boys, pled guilty in federal court today to felony charges of assault and conspiracy for his actions on Jan. 6, 2020 and the months before, according to a release by the US Justice Department.
He was arrested in March 2021. Five other members of the Proud Boys, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified as a Hate Group based on it’s white-supremacist ideology and public actions, have also been arrested for their actions on Jan. 6. They were Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the Proud Boys, along with members Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic “Spaz” Pezzola.
Donohoe is the only one to plead guilty.
The Justice Department says Donohoe was an appointed leader of the Proud Boys subgroup, the “Ministry of Self Defense,” with the objective to plan for the Jan. 6 Insurrection, which was still being called a rally in public.
From the release:
At least as early as Jan. 4, 2021, Donohoe was aware that the Ministry of Self Defense’s leaders were discussing the possibility of storming the Capitol. Donohoe believed that storming the Capitol would achieve the group’s goal of stopping the government from carrying out the transfer of presidential power. Donohoe understood from discussions that the Proud Boys would pursue their objective through the use of force and violence.
He faces 20 years in federal prison for the conspiracy charge and eight on the assault, according to the release, and no sentencing date has been set.
Jordan Green at Raw Story has more.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated that all five Proud Boys were arrested in the same day in March. They were in fact arrested over the course if about a year.
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[…] Donohoe, former leader of the local Triad area chapter of the Proud Boys attended the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol and was later arrested for his part in the attempted coup. Donohoe pled guilty to lesser counts and […]