They’re just one or two degrees away from dozens of other people charged and three-quarters of the known extremist organizations present on that day. When we look at the connections between other defendants and extremist groups, Tarrio and Rhodes are basically in the center. At the time of the attack, Tarrio was the leader of the Proud Boys and Rhodes was the leader of the Oath Keepers, another far-right group.

Take, for example, Enrique Tarrio and Stewart Rhodes. Of the individuals with ties to extremist groups who were charged, roughly one in five had a preexisting connection to another defendant. They had been to rallies together, or were in the same chat groups, or interacted on social media. Jensen also found that many of these individuals were connected to one another prior to January 6. He found that roughly a third of the nearly 900 individuals charged had some kind of connection to extremist ideology, including far-right groups like the Proud Boys and the QAnon conspiracy theory. 6 attack who had preexisting ties to extremist groups. Michael Jensen, a senior researcher who studies terrorism at the University of Maryland, combed through court documents, news reports and social media posts to identify every person charged in relation to the Jan. In fact, these organizations, which don’t usually band together, coordinated beforehand, helping the attack become so big and destructive. But researchers are finding that many of the people charged for their alleged involvement in the attack have a connection to an extremist group or movement. Capitol, some Republicans have framed the rioters as concerned Americans who just went a little overboard in their defense of former President Donald Trump.

Who are the proud boys