MIAMI – On the anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, one of a number of South Florida residents with ties to the riots, is asking for a pardon from President-elect Donald Trump.
His attorney sent a letter officially asking for the pardon on Monday.
Four years later, his mother, Zuny Duarte Tarrio spoke to her son in prison Monday morning.
“He was happy, ‘Hey, today is certification.’ Finally, this should have happened years ago,” Duarte Tarrio said of the conversation. “(He was) taken away for 22 years for something that, really, he didn’t do.”
Enrique Tarrio was not in Washington for the chaos at the Capitol. Rather, he was convicted for playing a role in a conspiracy to plan it, based on text messages to and from other players. He received one of the longest sentences of those convicted to date.
Trump has promised Jan. 6 pardons on his first day in office. With Monday’s certification, that day-one comes with an inauguration in two weeks.
Tarrio is among 15 arrested from Miami-Dade and Broward. Among them is Barbie Balmaseda. Screenshots from court documents track her movements at the Capitol with another former Miami Proud Boy, Gabriel Garcia, who was sentenced to a year in prison last month.
Balmaseda, a former intern for Sen. Marco Rubio, turned down a plea deal. She is scheduled for trial in March.
Families are hoping Trump will reverse it all on day one.
“As a mother, it’s devastating – is the word I would use,” Duarte Tarrio said.
Trump has claimed, however, that the pardons would not be made on a blanket — but case-by-case — basis.
