MIAMI — Walking out of the gate at Miami International Airport wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat with “Never Surrender” written on the side, Enrique Tarrio returned to Miami after President Donald Trump pardoned him for his role in orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The chairman of the Proud Boys was greeted by a group of friends, family and other “J-6ers” waiting for him at the airport.

From a crowd standing at the gate exit, a voice yelled “welcome home,” while someone else shouted “traitor.”

As Gabriel Garcia, a Miami Proud Boy also pardoned by Trump on Monday, escorted Tarrio out of the airport and into a car, someone in the crowd approached him.

“F-you, come visit us in Seattle, brother,” a man yelled at him, and the two began to argue.

“He won!” Garcia said, pointing at his shirt showing an edited version of Trump thrusting two middle fingers in the air.

Tarrio, 40, who was released from a federal correctional facility in Louisiana on Tuesday, said he was “just excited to see my family” as he was interviewed by a WPLG Local 10 News reporter after his arrival.

“I’m just happy Trump kept his promises,” Tarrio, who had worked in a Miami T-shirt shop before his arrest in March 2022, said about the president’s Jan. 6 pardons.

Tarrio said that he believes his own trial was “rigged” because the jurors had expressed “biases” against the Proud Boys during jury selection.

He also said he hopes the Trump administration investigates former top Justice Department officials, including ex-U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, whose office oversaw the Jan. 6 probes.

“If they committed any crimes, they should be prosecuted,” he said. “The same exact system that we went through, put them through.”

At his trial, Tarrio’s defense team said he never saw himself as the field general of the Proud Boys as his colleagues stormed the U.S. Capitol with thousands of others on Jan. 6 — mainly because he watched the violence unfold on TV at a hotel room in Baltimore. Nonetheless, he was sentenced to 22 years in prison in September 2023 after a federal jury in Washington found him and other Proud Boys guilty of seditious conspiracy and related charges.

At the time, Tarrio’s sentence was the longest related to the Jan. 6 attack.

But whatever jurors may have thought about Tarrio’s guilt after his months-long trial, it doesn’t matter anymore. Tarrio returned to Miami a free man on Wednesday after Trump pardoned him and about 1,300 individuals convicted of crimes in the attack on the Capitol. Trump also commuted the sentences of 14 others convicted in the Jan. 6 attacks.

Veteran attorneys in Miami said Trump’s clemency favors for the Jan. 6 offenders were a travesty — and not only because they were convicted of assaulting police officers while vandalizing the U.S. Capitol after Trump had urged his supporters at a rally earlier that day to march to Congress.

On Tuesday, the deputy attorney general in the Justice Department issued a memo requiring federal prosecutors to pursue stiffer charges and sentences against a variety of criminal suspects.

“In listening to some of the interviews of some of the J6 defendants who have been pardoned and released, I am amazed but not surprised that none of them have shown any remorse or accepted responsibility for their actions,” said Miami defense lawyer Frank Quintero.

“The new DOJ policy will result in more severe charges and longer sentences for anyone charged with a crime, not just foreign gangs, drug cartels and immigration offenders,” he added.

The Proud Boys was in its prime during Trump’s first term as president, describing itself as a “pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world, aka Western Chauvinists.”

But its reputation — along with that of other white nationalist organizations like the Oath Keepers — took a huge hit after the violent Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Tarrio, the Proud Boys chairman, was accused in an indictment of organizing a group of hard-core members — the Ministry of Self Defense — to develop “national rally planning” for a “Stop the Steal” protest on Jan. 6 to coincide with Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote that same day.

The indictment further accused Tarrio and the other Proud Boys defendants — Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl — of devising a militant strategy to target the Capitol, using the Internet not only to develop strategies and recruit members but to raise funds and buy paramilitary gear for the assault.

Tarrio and the other leaders of the Ministry of Self Defense hand-selected members of the organization, including Dominic Pezzola, to serve as “rally boys” during the attack on the Capitol, according to the indictment.

On the afternoon of Jan. 6, as the Proud Boys and other extremist groups stormed the Capitol, Tarrio did not join in the attack. He watched the assault on TV news in Baltimore after he had been ordered out of the District of Columbia by a federal judge stemming from his arrest in an earlier protest in the capital.

Tarrio was not absent, however. He expressed his support for the Proud Boys in online posts, giving them inspirational direction.

“After I finish watching this I’ll make a statement about my arrest (on Jan. 4) ... But for now I’m enjoying the show ... Do what must be done. #WeThePeople.”

A few minutes later, Tarrio posted: “Don’t f---ing leave.”

A Proud Boy member responded, “Are we a militia yet?”

In a series of posts, Tarrio said:. “Yep ... Make no mistake ... We did this ...”

As Tarrio rejoiced from the sidelines, the carnage in the capital was widespread.

At least five people, including a police officer and a rioter, died during or soon after the attack. Four additional police officers defending the Capitol that day later died by suicide. More than 140 police officers were also injured during the siege.

Hearings from the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 attack also highlighted Tarrio’s role. Committee members found that he and other Proud Boys were captured on video acknowledging that Trump’s remark about their group at a 2020 presidential debate — that the Proud Boys should “stand back and stand by” — was interpreted by followers as a green light for their actions.

Tarrio previously had served as Florida state director for an independent Latinos for Trump group.

Asked at the airport on Wednesday by WPLG Local 10 News to clarify his current role with the Proud Boys, Tarrio was vague.

“Four years ago we decided that we weren’t gonna release publicly how our organization works,” he said, “but I’ve said this before, I’d suggest to stop referring to me as ‘ex’ Proud Boy leader.”

At an inaugural rally on Monday night, Trump did not mention Tarrio by name, but told a crowd that he planned to make good on his promise to pardon people charged in the Jan. 6 riot, referring to them as “hostages.”

“Tonight, I’m gonna be signing on the J6 hostages’ pardons to get them out,” Trump told a crowd at Capitol One Arena. “We’ll be signing pardons for a lot of people. A lot of people.”

The president made the announcement while standing on a stage, in front of the families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

About 30 minutes after Trump left the rally, Tarrio’s mom posted on social media that her son had been released from custody.

“Omg! Lord Thank you!!! TARRIO IS FREE!!!” Zuny Duarte Tarrio wrote in a post.

But at a White House news conference on Tuesday, Trump was asked by a reporter about pardoning a man, Daniel Rodriguez, who was sentenced to more than 12 years after pleading guilty to assaulting a police officer with a stun gun on Jan. 6. The veteran officer, Mike Fanone, later suffered a heart attack and resigned from the Metropolitan Police Department in DC.

“You would agree it’s never acceptable to assault police officers?” the reporter asked.

“Sure,” Trump said.

“Among those you pardoned is a guy who used a stun gun on a police officer. Why does he deserve a pardon?” the reporter asked.

“Well, I don’t know,” the president responded. “We’ll take a look at everything.”

Speaking to CNN after the pardons, Fanone said that the individuals who “assaulted” him and threatened his life “will now walk free,” and that he and his family “less safe today because of Donald Trump and his supporters.”

“Rest assured, I have been betrayed by my country,” Fanone told CNN after Rodriguez was pardoned. “And I have been betrayed by those who supported Donald Trump.”

_____

©2025 Miami Herald. Visit at miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.