The federal investigation into the Capitol riot reached deeper into the Charlotte area on Thursday when a Gaston County man pleaded guilty to taking part in a Proud Boys seditious conspiracy to block the presidential transfer of power.
Jeremy Bertino, 43, of Belmont, a leader in the militant right wing group, becomes the third North Carolinian to plead guilty to the sprawling prosecution’s most serious charge — a conspiracy to use force to oppose the government of the United States.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
As part of his plea deal with federal prosecutors, Bertino faces up to five years in prison on the seditious conspiracy charge and unrelated firearms violation. The six guns identified in court documents, including an AR-15 style rifle with a scope, were seized by the FBI during raids on Bertino’s home in June.
U.S. District Judge Michael Kelly of Washington will sentence Bertino sometime next year.
Bertino also has vowed to assist the ongoing investigation into the Proud Boys, whose leaders are accused of planning an organized assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Kelly told Bertino in court Thursday that his assistance could include testifying at the trials of other Proud Boys defendants if so requested by prosecutors.
Charles Donohoe of Kernersville, the state Proud Boys president described as a key planner of the group’s role on Jan. 6, has already pleaded guilty and likewise promised to cooperate.
The 34-year-old former Marine was one of six Proud Boys members named in a May seditious conspiracy indictment. Donohoe was the first to plead guilty and has promised to testify against his co-defendants. Bertino becomes the second.
William Todd Wilson of Newton Grove also has pleaded guilty to the sedition charge. Prosecutors say Wilson is state president of the Oath Keepers, a second militia group accused of being at the center of the Capitol violence.
The group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes, along with other members, are currently on trial in Washington for seditious conspiracy.
Bertino becomes at least the 24th North Carolinian charged in connection with the riot, which claimed five lives, injured 140 police officers, and did millions of dollars in damages to the Capitol.
Almost 900 people have been criminally charged. Meanwhile, the investigation, which reportedly extends to Trump and members of inner circle, continues to unfold.
Bertino’s case quietly surface onto the federal docket Thursday with little fanfare.
Until now, Bertino had not specifically been named in an earlier Proud Boys indictment but is referred to frequently as “Person-1,” according to Raw Story.
Both “Person-1” and Donohoe were leaders of the Proud Boys’ so-called “Ministry of Self Defense,” which was formed to plan the group’s strategy for Jan. 6, the indictment claims.
A document tied to his plea agreement says Bertino conspired with Donohoe, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and other group members to “oppose by force the authority of the Government of the United States and to delay by force ... the transfer of power.”
Bertino, according to public records, moved to the Charlotte area from New York state. He pleaded guilty in 2004 near Rochester to first-degree reckless endangerment and was sentenced to five years of probation and an unspecified period of jail time, according to an FBI affidavit tied to the raids on his home.
On Dec. 12, 2020, Bertino was stabbed in Washington, when violence broke out after hundreds of Proud Boys marched to protest Trump’s loss to Biden and battled counter-protesters.
Bertino’s injuries, which hospitalized him for a time, kept him from being at the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to a statement of offense filed by prosecutors on Thursday.
Nonetheless, Bertino became a key cog in the Proud Boys’ plan to use violence to stop congressional certification of Trump’s defeat.
As part of a podcast with indicted Proud Boys leader Ethan Nordean, Bertino discussed his stabbing and alluded to the coming of a violent reckoning, according to the Washington Post.
“We (the Proud Boys) are looked at almost like the soldiers of the right wing. People are looking to us to lead the way,” he said. “ . . . we gladly will step up and take our place where they want us. This stuff is real. We are in a war.”
After the election, according to court documents, Bertino noticed that members of his group were becoming “more extreme and aggressive in their views,” displaying “a willingness to use violence affirmatively, rather than only in a defensive posture.”
The group also began seeing police — whom they now referred to as “coptifa” — as their enemies. During a Jan. 1 discussion, Bertino joined in. “#f---theblue,” he said.
During the riot, Bertino was active on an encrypted messaging link with other Proud Boy members, documents show.
“Holy f---. Do it boys,” he wrote just before 1 p.m. after several Proud Boys reported storming the Capitol.
Just under an hour later, he updated the situation.
“they are moving the cops back,” he wrote. “I have tears in my eyes.”
At least five other Jan. 6 defendants live in the Charlotte region, including:
— Brad Bennett of Huntersville.
— Les Little of Claremont.
— Grayson Sherrill of Cherryville.
— Elias Irizarry and Elliott Bishai, both of York County, S.C.
