Proud Boys trial: Zach Rehl, the right-wing group’s Philly leader, and three others convicted in Jan. 6 sedition case

Zachary Rehl, the former head of the Philadelphia chapter of the Proud Boys, was convicted Thursday on seditious conspiracy charges alleging that he and three other leaders of the far-right extremist group orchestrated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol in an effort to keep President Donald Trump in power.

Rehl, 37, was also convicted of multiple felony counts including obstruction of Congress alongside the organization’s former national president Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and two other regional leaders of the far-right group, Ethan Nordean, of Washington state, and Joseph Biggs, of Florida.

» READ MORE: For Philly Proud Boys president Zach Rehl, sedition conviction for Jan. 6 attack rests largely on his own words

The four men now face up to 20 years in prison on the most serious sedition charge.

A fifth member of the neofacist group, Dominic Pezzola, best known for having broken one of the first windows in the Capitol building with a stolen police riot shield, was also convicted of felony crimes related to the attack but was acquitted on the sedition charge.

Here’s what you need to know about Rehl and his role in the case:

» READ MORE: Former Proud Boys extremist group leader Enrique Tarrio convicted of seditious conspiracy for Jan. 6 Capitol attack

A Marine veteran and son and grandson of Philadelphia police officers, Rehl led the city’s chapter of the Proud Boys since at least 2018 — a role that has put him at the forefront of many of the group’s most controversial moments in the city.

When Proud Boys were spotted mingling with officers at a “Back the Blue” rally outside the Fraternal Order of Police lodge in Northeast Philadelphia shortly after the racial justice protests of 2020, Rehl was there, drinking beer and chanting with others in the parking lot who were openly carrying a Proud Boys flag.

He was one of the organizers of a 2018 pro-Trump “We the People” rally outside Independence Hall that drew a minuscule crowd of supporters but led to heated clashes with a much larger group of counterprotesters.

When Trump appeared to lose the 2020 presidential election, he posted on the right-wing social media site Parler: “Hopefully, the firing squads are for the traitors that are trying to steal the election from the American people.”

And as Trump called his supporters to a Jan. 6 rally to protest Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s victory, prosecutors say, Rehl was selected by top Proud Boys leadership to help organize the group’s presence in Washington that day.

Testifying during the trial, he said he joined the group soon after getting a graduate degree from Temple University, hoping it would help expand his network as he tried to launch his own business. But in the end, he said, his affiliation with the group has hurt him more than it helped.

“The reputation assigned to the Proud Boys probably set me back 10 years,” he said.

He has been in federal custody since his March 2021 arrest at his Port Richmond home.

Videos from the Capitol riot widely shared on social media showed Rehl, dressed in a “Make America Great Again” cap and with a Temple Owls backpack, leading a group of more than 100 Proud Boys and followers on a meandering march from the Washington Monument to the Capitol.

And as hundreds of Trump supporters stormed past police barricades Rehl stood by the site of the first breach, shooting video on his phone.

“F— them!” he shouted at the mob. “Storm the Capitol.”

Photos also surfaced of Rehl inside the building, smoking a cigarette while carousing with a mob of rioters in the office of Sen. Jeff Merkley (D., Ore.).

But prosecutors allege his role that day extended far beyond illegally entering the building. They say he and the other Proud Boys leaders charged in the case went to Washington with a detailed plan to attack.

Their goal, the Justice Department said, citing reams of encrypted chat log transcripts seized from group members, was to “rile up the normies” — or Trump supporters unaffiliated with their organization — into storming the Capitol and disrupting the certification vote.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Conor Mulroe said during closing arguments last week that the group arrived in D.C. “thirsting for violence.”

”These defendants saw themselves as President Donald Trump’s army, fighting to keep their preferred leader in power no matter what the law or the courts had to say about it,” he said.

Though prosecutors did not initially charge Rehl with committing any acts of violence that day, newly discovered video surfaced during the trial that appeared to show him shooting pepper spray in the direction of officers trying to keep the mob at bay.

Confronted with that footage while on the witness stand, Rehl insisted he couldn’t be certain he was the man seen in it and told the jury he didn’t recall whether he attacked police during the riot.

The charge is the most serious accusation prosecutors have brought against any of the nearly 1,000 people charged to date with playing a role in the Capitol attack.

A conviction requires prosecutors to prove that the men were seeking to either overthrow the government or interfere with the execution of federal law by force.

To date, the Justice Department has won convictions against Stewart Rhodes, founder and leader of the extremist group the Oath Keepers, and one lieutenant at a trial in November, but a jury acquitted three others who stood trial with them on the sedition charge. Four other members of that far-right militant group were convicted at trial earlier this year.

Three other Oath Keepers and one member of the Proud Boys had previously pleaded guilty to sedition charges.

Much as they did during the Oath Keepers’ trials, prosecutors drew on thousands of internal text messages and chat logs to demonstrate the Proud Boys’ planning and organization before Jan. 6.

Working with top lieutenants including Rehl, Tarrio, the group’s national president, handpicked a group of “rally boys” to take the lead in the group’s on-the-ground efforts in Washington, according to prosecutors. Rehl was put in charge of “operations” along with Carlisle, Pa.-based Proud Boy John Charles Stewart, according to evidence introduced at trial.

As the day of the rally approached, Rehl and the other leaders participated in a series of chats with members of the group across the country with plans to organize into 10-man teams with medics and communications experts. They planned to eschew their traditional black-and-gold Proud Boy colors to better blend into the crowds.

Jan. 6 would be a “completely different operation,” Rehl said in a Dec. 30, 2020, chat. This time the Proud Boys would be doing more than “flexing our [arms] and s—.”

He opened a crowdfunding account on the Christian website GiveSendGo, popular among extremist groups, that raised more than $5,500 to fund travel and equipment costs for the group.

Despite assertions from Rehl and the others that they went to Washington only to support Trump and had no preconception of the violence that erupted that day, prosecutors say their social media postings in the days after say otherwise.

“Seems like our raid of the Capitol set off a chain reaction of events throughout the country,” Rehl texted his mother the night of the Capitol attack. “I’m so f— proud.”

The next day, he wrote to other Proud Boys: “This is what patriotism looks like.” And of law enforcement members who defended the Capitol, he added: “They deserve to be tarred and feathered. These cops turning on us are what they call ‘turncoats.’ Just saying.”

Throughout the trial, Rehl’s attorney, Carmen Hernandez, attempted to paint him as the least culpable of the Proud Boys leaders, repeatedly stressing that despite entering the Capitol illegally with the pro-Trump mob, he didn’t attack anyone, didn’t carry any weapons and didn’t vandalize any property.

Testifying in his own defense, Rehl said he now thought what happened on Jan. 6 was a disgrace but insisted he didn’t arrive in Washington with any plan and didn’t realize the severity of the violence until after the riot had concluded.

“At the end of the day, I thought it was a protest,” he said. “That’s what I went there for and when I left, that’s what it was.”

To the jury, he added: “If you believe I did anything wrong that day, I really do truly apologize.”