A leader of the Proud Boys pleaded guilty on Friday to felony charges for actions before and during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, and has agreed to cooperate with the ongoing investigation into the deadly insurrection.
Charles Donohoe, 34, of Kernersville, North Carolina, pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting or impeding officers, the Justice Department announced in a release.
"Donohoe faces up to 20 years in prison on the conspiracy charge and up to eight years in prison on the charge of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers," the Justice Department said. "Both charges also carry potential financial penalties." A sentencing date was not set.
Donohoe is the first leader of the far-right group to plead guilty and aid the Justice Department's investigation. According to the Justice Department, Donohoe joined the organization in 2018 and became president of his local North Carolina chapter of the group.
According to court documents, in December of 2020, Proud Boys founder Enrique Tarrio, who was then the group's national chairman, formed a new chapter of the organization called the "Ministry of Self Defense," which was "focused on the planning and execution of national rallies."
"The first objective of the Ministry of Self Defense was to plan for actions in relation to the Washington, D.C., rally on Jan. 6, 2021," the Justice Department said. "Donohoe was a leader of this new chapter, which eventually grew to include at least 65 members."
The Justice Department said that Donohoe was "aware" that the sub-group's leaders were "discussing the possibility of storming the Capitol," which he believed "would achieve the group’s goal of stopping the government from carrying out the transfer of presidential power."
"Donohoe understood from discussions that the Proud Boys would pursue their objective through the use of force and violence," the DOJ said.
On Jan. 6, Donohoe was in a "group of 100 or more Proud Boys who marched away from a rally near the Washington Monument towards the Capitol," the Justice Department said, assembling two blocks from the Capitol, where he "understood that other Proud Boys leaders were searching for an opportunity to storm the Capitol."
Later that afternoon, the group "arrived at the Capitol and began breaching the barriers surrounding the Capitol grounds," the DOJ said.
"While in the West Plaza of the Capitol, Donohoe threw two water bottles at a line of law enforcement officers who were attempting to prevent the mob’s advance in the West Plaza at the Capitol building," the statement from the Justice Department reads. "As events continued, Donohoe joined with a crowd, including other Proud Boys, to push forward to advance up the concrete stairs toward the Capitol. The crowd overwhelmed law enforcement officers on the stairs, continued toward the Capitol, and ultimately entered the Capitol building after Donohoe’s co-defendant, Dominic Pezzola, allegedly broke open a window of the building."
Later, Donohoe posted messages in a "Ministry of Self Defense" Leadership Group, the DOJ said, celebrating what he did that day.
Donohoe was arrested in March and is among six defendants, including Tarrio, indicted in Washington, D.C., on a number of charges, including conspiracy.
Tarrio this week pleaded not guilty to charges that he remotely led a plot to stop Congress’ certification of Biden’s 2020 victory in the presidential election. Tarrio was not in Washington on Jan. 6, but prosecutors say he organized encrypted chats with Proud Boys members in the weeks before the attack, had a 42-second phone call with another member of the group in the building during the insurrection and took credit for the chaos at the Capitol.
A New York man, Matthew Greene, became the first Proud Boys member to plead guilty to conspiracy in December. He agreed to cooperate with authorities as part of a plea agreement.
On the morning of Jan. 6, Proud Boys members met at the Washington Monument and marched to the Capitol before President Donald Trump finished addressing thousands of supporters near the White House.
Around two hours later, just before Congress convened a joint session to certify the election results, a group of Proud Boys followed a crowd of people who breached barriers at a pedestrian entrance to the Capitol grounds, according to one of the indictments. Several Proud Boys also entered the Capitol itself after the mob smashed windows and forced open doors, the indictment says.
Since the Jan. 6 attack, nearly 800 people from all 50 states have been arrested in relation to the breach of the Capitol, the Justice Department said. More than 250 people have been charged with impeding or assaulting law enforcement.