(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio said Tuesday that a warrant was issued for his arrest after a Washington DC judge found him in contempt of court in a long running civil lawsuit with the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Tarrio’s contempt charge stems from a December 2020 incident, when a group of Proud Boys stole a Black Lives Matter banner from the church and destroyed it. That led to Tarrio’s arrest two days before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill uprising. Tarrio was later sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in Jan. 6, despite him not even being there.
President Donald Trump commuted Tarrio’s sentence last year, but that didn’t end his legal troubles. While he was in jail, the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church earned a default judgment against him and the Proud Boys, which has since ballooned to more than $3 million.
This stems from a civil judgment issued over a Dec. 2020 destruction of a black church's banner.
Tarrio says he doesn't have funds to pay what's now more than a $3m judgment. A judge ordered him to provide his electronic devices for inspection. He refused. https://t.co/TYdWxT9Pay pic.twitter.com/EcJgVyY4ZA— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) January 27, 2026
Tarrio, a one-time FBI informant, says he has no money to pay the hefty judgment. And while he purportedly owns a 2.5% interest in the cryptocurrency “Proud Coin,” he says those tokens won’t be available to him until at least April 2027.
Accordingly, Tarrio proposed last October that he pay $100 per quarter, which was the same rate he was forced to pay while in prison for a prior $1.5 million judgment.
However, the church wants him to prove his lack of funds by, among other things, providing his electronic devices for inspection. Tarrio refused to do so, leading to the contempt findings on Tuesday.
Tarrio says he still has no plans on providing his phone and other devices.
“The courts in DC have issued a warrant for my arrest because I am refusing to give them my personal phone so they can entrap more people in their web of weaponization,” he said on Twitter/X. “I WILL NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES GIVE ACCESS TO ANYONE. Under this premise the Judge can hold me in jail INDEFINITELY.”
The courts in DC have issued a warrant for my arrest because I am refusing to give them my personal phone so they can entrap more people in their web of weaponization.
I WILL NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES GIVE ACCESS TO ANYONE. Under this premise the Judge can hold me in jail…
— Enrique Tarrio (@NobleOne) January 27, 2026
Tarrio further called for the Justice Department’s civil rights division to intervene in what he called “malicious” lawfare.
The next hearing in the case is set for May 28.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
