Members of the violent far-right group the Proud Boys, as well as their connection with Trump associate and political consultant Roger Stone, were the subject of a 2019 criminal investigation that ultimately did not lead to charges, CNN reported Wednesday.
The previously-undisclosed investigation centered on whether the group had deliberately threatened the federal judge in Stone’s own case, according to CNN.
Stone, who was convicted of witness intimidation and lying to Congress but pardoned by former President Trump, posted an image of Judge Amy Berman Jackson with crosshairs behind her head to his Instagram account in February 2019, shortly after his indictment.
In court, he said the image was selected by an unnamed person who helped him with social media. Stone said he had not realized the image contained crosshairs. Jackson tightened Stone’s gag order as a result and he was later banned outright from Instagram and Facebook.
In a subsequent hearing, Stone said Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, reportedly a federal informant, had assisted him with social media. Stone also named several other members and associates of the group, including Tyler Ziolkowski, Jacob Engels and Rey Perez, according to CNN.
The men Stone named later flew to Washington, D.C., to testify in the matter.
“They asked me about if I had anything to do about posting that. They were asking me if Stone has ever paid me, what he’s ever paid me for,” Ziolkowski told CNN this week.
Ziolkowski was reportedly not present in D.C. on Jan. 6, the day of the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, while Tarrio had been arrested days before. Engels told Ziolkowski he was with Stone, who was in D.C. on Jan. 6 but has said he was not involved in the Capitol breach. Although none of the men have been charged in connection with Jan. 6, several other figures associated with the group have been charged.
Earlier this week, the NAACP and House Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) sued the group along with Trump, his attorney Rudy Giuliani and another far-right group, the Oath Keepers, under a Reconstruction-era law for alleged incitement.