As the possibility of pardons looms for those convicted in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the mother of former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio spoke out about what happened that day and what she thinks about the potential release of her son.
Tarrio was not in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, but he was convicted of conspiring to lead what occurred that day at the Capitol. From her home in southwest Miami-Dade, his mother, Zuny Tarrio, rejected that theory and believes her son deserves a presidential pardon.
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WATCH HERE"President Trump, I think my son and most of those J6, if not all, deserve to be home with their families," she said. "We’ve suffered long enough."
Enrique Tarrio was convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 22 years.
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"I don’t think anyone honestly likes what happened January 6th," Zuny Tarrio said. "I think the way that it happened, shouldn’t have happened. I think the government could have stopped that in a lot of ways."
Five police officers died in the days after the riot – with some dying by suicide – and the four people in the crowd died as well.
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"Those police officers took an oath to defend and there’s no guarantees of what happens when you do a job like that," Zuny Tarrio said. "I don’t think anybody intentionally injured anyone. And I think if someone has to take responsibility, it is the government that didn’t put proper measures for all of that. I don’t think anyone there actually killed an officer or caused any type of major injury. "
She rejected the portrayal of her son as a leader of the violence.
"First of all, the word leader seems to be really far-fetched because there were thousands of people on Capitol Hill that day. Not all of them were Proud Boys," she said. "Enrique Tarrio wasn’t even there that day. He was but in the ground. He was not in Washington D.C. that day."
Hoping it will be over soon, she looked back at the past two and a half years.
"As a mother, it's been horrific," Zuny Tarrio said. "Tt’s a terrible feeling to have a child in federal prison without a real reason."
President-elect Donald Trump has made several statements about pardoning those convicted over Jan. 6, including that he will determine the parsons on a case by case basis
