Anyone who is thinking about answering Donald Trump’s latest call for protests should consider messages that a Proud Boys leader posted after the storming of the Capitol two years ago.
“Alright I’m gonna say it. FUCK TRUMP. Fuck him more than Biden. I’ve followed this guy for 4 years and given everything and lost it all,” 32-year-old Ethan Nordean wrote.
The Jan. 20, 2021, post from a Telegram chat group was entered into evidence on Thursday in Washington, D.C., federal court. Nordean and four other senior members of the far-right white supremacist group are on trial there for sedition.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Yes he woke us up, but he led us to believe some great justice was upon us ... and it never happened,” Nordean went on about Trump, his neo-fascist venom curdled by betrayal. “Now I’ve got some of my good friends and myself facing jail time cuz we followed this guy’s lead and never questioned it.”
The time stamp was 2:28 p.m. Trump’s presidency and his power to pardon had officially ended at noon that day.
“We are now and always have been on our own,” Nordean bitterly complained. “So glad he was able to pardon a bunch of degenerates as his last move and shit on us on the way out.”
Those who had been pardoned included Jared Kushner’s father, Charles, who was convicted of sending his sister a sex tape he made of her husband with a prostitute. Nordean was left to face up to 40 years in prison.
“Fuck you Trump you left us on the battlefield bloody and alone,” Nordean wrote.
The postings were recovered by the FBI from Nordean’s phone following his arrest several days later. They initially appeared in court papers in May of 2021, and they reappeared as evidence submitted by the prosecution before it rested its case on Friday.
As it happened, Trump chose Saturday to declare on social media that he was about to be arrested. He again called on his followers to protest an entirely legal proceeding.
“PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” he posted on Truth Social.
At the prospect of even a small scale repeat of the Jan. 6 riot, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg met with the NYPD and the FBI and New York State Supreme Court officers. They were joined by the Secret Service, who continue to provide Trump with protection.
Meanwhile, Trump called Bragg a corrupt lawbreaker. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other Republican leaders accused the prosecutor of playing politics. Roger Stone, the recipient of a Trump pardon, ramped up the looniness on Truth Social by announcing that that “Pastors for Trump” were joining in a “call for prayer.”
“The War Again Trump is a War Against Humanity,” the post said.
On Monday, police began unloading steel barricades in the vicinity of the DA's office in case they are needed for crowd control if and when an indictment is unsealed and Trump is booked. A group of less than a dozen stood outside Trump Tower at midday. But it’s not clear how many might show up for or after the actual event.
Whatever happens in New York this week, the sedition trial in Washington will continue. As live-tweeted by Roger Parloff of Lawfare, the defense commenced on Monday. Attorney Norm Pattis, who represents Proud Boys leader Joseph Biggs, delivered the opening argument, saying that the tens of thousands at the Capitol on Jan. 6 “were summoned by the then-sitting president of the U.S. Donald J. Trump.”
The question now is how anybody could again answer such a summons knowing how Trump abandoned his followers after Jan. 6. Nordean’s father—who has denounced the Proud Boys and posted a notice that the two Washington State restaurants he owns hire “without attention to race, religion, gender identity, national origin, or disability status”—declined to comment when asked by The Daily Beast how he felt on hearing of Trump’s latest call to battle.
“I’m just as confused as anybody,” Michael Nordean said.
