Motion Filed for Reduction of Proud Boys Leader’s Sentence, Alleges Politically-Motivated Judge Acted Deeply Inappropriately
Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio is set to turn himself in for his 155 day sentence over burning a Black Lives Matter flag and attempting to bring an unloaded commemorative ammunition clip into the District of Columbia in December.
Tarrio was harshly sentenced by Judge Harold Cushenberry for the misdemeanors of a mostly peaceful act of protest and having an ammo clip that was not even functionally able to fire bullets. The sentence was higher than what the prosecution even requested.
A motion filed for his release and for the judge to be recused, obtained by the Gateway Pundit, paints a grim portrait of the judge’s actions during the sentencing — and the potential outcome for cases for other Proud Boys like Joe Biggs, who are currently imprisoned while awaiting trial for being present on January 6.
“I’m happy to go through what God is about to put me through. Not because it’s just…but because it’s part of his plan. What’s happening to me is peanuts compared to what others are going through when we’re talking about political persecution. But we must never let evil take root. I plan on fighting the DOJ every step of the way. The judge in my case had an extreme bias that showed through every step of the process,” Tarrio told the Gateway Pundit.
Indeed, three times the judge had to change his sentencing because he was attempting to give him more times than was allowed. Two days after the sentencing of Tarrio, the same judge gave Irun Warner, an accused pedophile, zero jail time.
Tarrio continued on to say, “the most BASIC of functions a judge has is to at least know what crimes the defendant is charged with. Not twice but THREE times he sentenced me because he had not a single clue of what my charges were. For a misdemeanor he gave me the max sentence available. But this judge in two recent cases allowed a pedophile accused of touching underage children to ZERO jail time.”
“I don’t believe this Judge will recuse himself out of pride and extreme prejudice. This is an injustice and if it is allowed to go unchecked…what chance do the J6 protestors have? I’m facing months…they’re facing decades,” he concluded.
It turns out, the judge previously attended the church where the banner was taken from and asserted based on unclear video that Tarrio knew where it had come from. The judge’s eldest daughter was baptized there. Tarrio maintains that he did not know where the flag had came from.
“At the plea hearing, this Court took no issue with Mr. Tarrio’s statement that he did not know that the banner came from a church when he participated in burning it. During the plea hearing, Mr. Tarrio agreed to waive recusal when this Court announced that it had a personal connection with Asbury United Methodist Church after consulting with undersigned counsel. This Court accepted Mr. Tarrio’s factual proffer and guilty plea,” the motion explains. “Later, at the sentencing hearing, this Court completely change positions, proclaiming that Mr. Tarrio had lied about his knowledge that the flag came from a church, and that this Court was going to aggravate his sentence accordingly based on its belief that Mr. Tarrio’s supposed lie was evidence that he had not truly accepted responsibility or demonstrated genuine remorse. This gave rise to the appearance of impropriety.”
The motion asserts that Judge Cushenberry, Jr.’s impartiality “might reasonably be questioned” because he allowed the church to not only submit a written victim impact statement but to then read, in open court, another version of the statement and make highly inflammatory statements about the Ku Klux Klan. “This Court, on the other hand, prohibited Mr. Tarrio from presenting even one character witness to briefly speak on his behalf. This Court essentially called Mr. Tarrio a liar and a manipulator and then proceeded to sentence him to more than a year when the maximum combined legal sentence for both offenses was 360 days in jail,” the motion states.
“When the prosecutor pointed this out to the Court, the Court relented but then sentenced Mr. Tarrio to more than 180 days for one of the counts, mistakenly believing that Mr. Tarrio had pled guilty to two counts of possession of an extended ammunition feeding device. After being corrected again, the Court finally imposed a legal sentence but one that exceeded the already extremely harsh sentence that the government had requested,” the motion continued.
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