Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio said he met with President Trump this weekend at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Tarrio, who was released from prison following Trump’s day-one pardon and clemency order related to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, posted about the meeting on X on Sunday.
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“Yesterday, I had the honor of meeting the President of the United States, a moment I never could have imagined in my darkest days,” Tarrio wrote in his post.
In a subsequent post, Tarrio shared a New York Times story about their encounter and quoted a line from the report that read, “Enrique Tarrio said he told Mr. Trump that he had saved his life by including him in a blanket grant of clemency for Jan. 6 defendants.”
Tarrio was serving a 22-year prison sentence — the longest handed down in connection to the Capitol attack — after he was convicted of sedition for his role in the planning and lead-up to the riot. Trump then granted him a “full, complete and unconditional” pardon alongside roughly 1,500 other Jan. 6 defendants.
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White House officials told multiple news outlets that the meeting Saturday night was not planned but that Tarrio was at the club to dine with a member, who introduced him to Trump, according to The Associated Press.
The president and Tarrio had a “brief exchange” as Trump was walking to his table for dinner, the AP added, citing an official granted anonymity to discuss the private encounter.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
