PORTLAND, Ore. — A defense attorney says FBI agents recruited a Proud Boys leader to provide them with information about anti-fascist activists several months before he was charged with joining other members of the far-right extremist group in storming the U.S. Capitol.
In a court filing late Monday, the lawyer for Proud Boys organizer Joseph Biggs says the Florida man agreed to provide the FBI with information about “antifa networks” after an agent contacted him in late July 2020 and arranged to meet at a restaurant.
The claim buttresses a widely held view among left-leaning ideological opponents of the Proud Boys that law enforcement has coddled them and condoned their violence.
Prior to the alleged contact with the FBI agent, Biggs helped organize a highly publicized Proud Boys rally in Portland that caught the attention of then-President Donald Trump. Biggs flew in from Florida for the August 2019 rally, which many people worried would result in widespread violence. While there were clashes between the more than 1,000 far-right demonstrators and left-wing, anti-fascist counter-protesters, the rally did not result in the kind of destruction that had been feared. Thirteen people were arrested.
Last week, two Oregon brothers with ties to the Proud Boys were arrested on federal charges, including conspiracy, related to the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. A third Oregonian was reportedly arrested this month in connection with the riot.
Five people were killed and 139 police officers were injured during the attack, according to federal prosecutors. The riot, which occurred as Congress was certifying the Electoral College vote for the 2020 presidential election, was spurred on by false claims of widespread voter fraud and a rigged election.
