ExtremismLedger
ExtremismLedger is a living public-interest database. Records are continuously reviewed, updated, and expanded as new verified information becomes available.

Proud Boys

Overview

Proud Boys is a U.S.-based, male-only organization founded in 2016 by Gavin McInnes. The group has described itself as “Western chauvinist”; the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) describes it as a right-wing extremist group. This page distinguishes the organization’s stated identity and documented structure from conduct and legal outcomes involving particular leaders or members.

Founding and organization

According to ADL, McInnes announced the group in 2016 as a “pro-Western” fraternity. ADL reports that the group later developed a national leadership structure alongside local chapters. Its current-status assessment says that the national structure fragmented after January 6, 2021 and that local chapters have operated with limited inter-chapter coordination. ADL reports that the organization claims 146 officially recognized chapters in 47 U.S. states, as well as international chapters; this is a claimed chapter count, not an independently verified membership total.

January 6, 2021

Federal prosecutions established criminal liability for named Proud Boys leaders and members connected to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. On May 4, 2023, a jury convicted former national chairman Enrique Tarrio and leaders Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, and Zachary Rehl of multiple felonies, including seditious conspiracy. The Department of Justice said the trial evidence concerned a plot by the defendants to oppose by force the lawful transfer of presidential power. These outcomes concern those named defendants and should not be generalized to every Proud Boys member.

On January 20, 2025, a presidential proclamation commuted the sentences of Nordean, Biggs, Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola to time served, and granted pardons to other people convicted of January 6-related offenses. The proclamation’s distinct clemency terms are not treated here as a reversal of the earlier jury verdicts.

Trademark litigation

In February 2025, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia ordered the transfer of Proud Boys International, L.L.C.’s interests in the Proud Boys trademark to Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in enforcement of a default judgment. That order addressed the named legal entity and trademark rights; it does not establish that all local chapters ceased operating.

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