in a huge win for the justice department, a jury just found four members of the proud boys guilty of seditious conspiracy including the group s leader enrique tarrio. all of this related to their roles in the january 6th insurrection. baseless lies, the biden administration is blasting moscow s claim that the u.s. is somehow tied to yesterday s drone explosion near the kremlin. now russia is seeking revenge, even using drones itself to attack ukraine with the words for moscow written on them. we re live from the battlefield. and a mysterious illness, a detroit public school forced to shut down after reports of a spike in illnesses among young students stricken with flu-like symptoms. we re following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to cnn news central. from insurrection to conviction, a major day for justice, coming two years and three months after the attack on the nation s capitol. some of the most serious offenders charged wit
for the justice department in so many ways. this trial has been extremely long. there was an exceptional amount of effort put in to gather the evidence needed to bring the prosecution against these men. these members of the proud boys. and there were things that the justice department found in chats even among members of the proud boys that they were able to show to the jury so far to help secure these convictions, things like a message enrique tarrio, the leader of the proud boys, had sent to other proud boys on january 6th saying, make no mistake, we did this. that was a crucial piece of evidence in this case so far, and it did allow the jury to find tarrio guilty of seditious conspiracy. he was not on the grounds of the capitol or even in washington, d.c., on january 6th, so that was quite a monumental thing for the justice department to be able to are prove in this case. but we are still waiting for that additional count. what happened with the other
we don t see that much. we don t see those charges much. help put into context how rare some of all of this is to see not only these charges being put forth but these men being found guilty of them? reporter: this is not something that you see, not even every day. you barely even see it every decade. in the past the justice department had tried to bring it against militia members. it had not survived in court, was tossed out on the law, but seditious conspiracy was something that the justice department decided that they thought they could prove, and they have proven with multiple juries now against members of the oath keeper, that right wing group of many former military police who came to the capitol on january 6th and were led by stewart rhodes, the leader there and then now with the proud boys, another right wing group, and they were able to prove with this seditious conspiracy case two things, that there was an
won t. that doesn t mean deliberations are over. the big picture here when you step back, when you look at this is that the justice department has locked up convictions. they have locked up finding four leaders of the proud boys guilty of seditious conspiracy and others guilty of other serious charges, conspiracy, obstruction, rioting on the capitol, assaulting police, taking a riot shield, those are all very, very serious counts put together, and it is quite a significant moment for the justice department to be able to bring this case to this conclusion after so many attempts by this defense team to get this case thrown out, to get a mistrial declared, or to get the jury somehow derailed from finding these men guilty. and katelyn, you alluded to this, but being found guilty of seditious conspiracy is such a rare thing.
think what you saw here like you said, jim, very careful jury parsing the evidence found four defendants guilty of seditious conspiracy. i think it s a landmark, you know, achievement frankly by the justice department, a very challenging case to bring and one that undercuts a lot of the narratives about january 6th being, you know, just a bunch of hoodlums or, you know, something that was disorganized. actually, you know, there was a lot of evidence presented at this trial regarding planning and coordination, like katelyn mentioned a moment ak. the fact that the fifth defendant s not guilty of that as katelny pointed out, a number of other convictions of him including conspiracy charges regarding obstruction of an official proceeding. so a similar sentence, but actually, i think, a set of verdicts that are going to now hold up very well on appeal given the careful consideration by the jury. renato, thanks so much. stay with us for a second, i d like to go out to sara sidner who s bee