In a Wednesday motion to end his client’s pretrial detention, an attorney for Proud Boy Zachary Rehl filed a damning nine-page document that seems to have been a blueprint guide for the attempted disruption of the congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory on Jan. 6, 2021.
Titled “1776 Returns,” the guide was found in former head of the Proud Boys Henry “Enrique” Tarrio’s possession. The existence of this document was reported on back in March after prosecutors referred to it in filing charges against Tarrio for a variety of crimes including conspiracy.
Tarrio joined former Oath Keepers leader Elmer Stewart Rhodes in charges that the two men, their organizations, and others conspired with seditious intentions in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol building.
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It is known that Tarrio and Rhodes met at least once face-to-face, on the eve of the insurrection. It is known because Tarrio and friends had a filmmaker filming his and the Oath Keepers’ clandestine meeting in a subterranean Washington, D.C., parking garage.
The “1776 Returns” document offers up a five-part plan on what patriots like Tarrio and others needed to do to stop the certification of Biden as president. It highlighted buildings that should be targeted for occupation, including CNN. It included a push to have something called the “Patriot Plan” disseminated to followers and those rioters who were likely not to be organized in the way that the conspirators were.
The document reads almost like a shooting script for what actually transpired that day. It begins with the preparations and reconnaissance around the areas that were likely to be under siege. It includes mention of using fire alarms if needed to allow access into buildings, as well as using emergency alarms in other public places such as hotels, Walmart, and grocery stores as a distraction to law enforcement.
While the “1776 Returns” document does not specifically include plans on attacking the Capitol, the “Patriot Plan” document that it portends would include a coordinated storming of buildings by mobs. It ends with a page running the header “We the People,” in old-timey font, and demands for a new vote to be held on Inauguration Day. At the bottom of the page is a “Special Mention” section. Centered on the page it reads:
“Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Mike Pence & Bill Gates
We the people are watching you.
Rand Paul & Ron DeSantis
We the people love you”
It is easy to read this document like little kids playing Benedict Arnold, with access to a word processing program. But this document ends up being a damning piece of evidence when coupled with how closely the MAGA-ites storming the Capitol building seemed to have followed its directions.
We talk to expert Brandi Buchman about everything you need to know for the Jan. 6 committee, hearings, and investigation on Daily Kos' The Brief podcast