You may already know that a group of Trumpist blackshirt insurrectionists – so-called “Proud Boys” – were convicted of, among other things, seditious conspiracy by a jury yesterday.
Politico talked to the jurors and one set of quotes stuck out. One of the “Proud Boys” who stormed the Capitol in an effort to end American democracy and install Donald Trump as dictator-for-life was one Dominic Pezzola from the Rochester area. He was acquitted of seditious conspiracy, but convicted on other felonies relating to his violent attempt to end the USA.
To be guilty of seditious conspiracy, you and at least one other person working in concert must have planned to “overthrow, put down or to destroy by force” the U.S. government or bring war against it, or that they plotted to use force to oppose the authority of the government or to block the execution of a law.
“The first day we elected a foreman. After that, we all put out our initial impressions of the evidence. We all voted and most people saw the evidence pointed towards seditious conspiracy. By the second day, we had pretty much established guilty verdicts on the conspiracy,” he said.
Mundell said the group agreed that Pezzola was not guilty of seditious conspiracy because he wasn’t closely tied enough to Tarrio or the group’s leaders — Pezzola took the stand and emphasized that he had only been in the Proud Boys for a month before Jan. 6 and barely knew his co-defendants.
“Another factor was just that he wasn’t the brightest bulb on the porch. And may not have been bright enough to really know about the plan,” Mundell said. “So I said, well, poor guy. He should’ve listened to his father-in-law, who told him ‘don’t go.’”
So, there you have it, folks. Dominic Pezzola: too stupid to be guilty of seditious conspiracy; just stupid enough to be guilty of assaulting an officer, civil disorder, robbing a police officer, and obstructing a Congressional proceeding.
What fine, upstanding citizens these Trump blackshirts are.
