Greene then had to attend three “vetting meetings” and go to one rally before he could be officially “voted in.” On his way home from pro-Donald Trump rally on December 12, 2020, Greene told the jury, he was told that the central New York chapter had voted, and he was now a first-degree Proud Boy.
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Once he submitted his application, Greene testified that he was told to download the messaging app Telegram and pick a moniker (he chose “Publius,” as he had had just finished reading the Federalist Papers). He had to write a short essay on why he wanted to join the organization and what attributes he would bring, Greene said, and send in a video of himself saying the Proud Boys oath of “I am a Proud Western Chauvinist and I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.”
Greene explained to the jury what the process was like to officially become a low-level, or “first degree” Proud Boy. “In my mind it seemed like someone defending the defenseless.” He then decided to join the organization after the presidential election. “I liked the fact that they seemed to be standing up to some of the street violence, standing up for some of the people who were being harassed on the streets,” Greene said. Greene recounted for the jury how he felt when he saw “propaganda videos” of the Proud Boys “street fighting” on city streets in 2020. The defendants – Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, Pezzola and Ethan Nordean – have all pleaded not guilty. But prosecutors allege he, along with defendant and fellow New Yorker Dominic Pezzola, played an important role as part of the first line of rioters who violently pushed through police barriers. Greene was never in contact with the leaders of the Proud Boys, prosecutors say, and did not know of an explicit plan to storm the building. “There was a mantra that was told to me,” he added, “we don’t start s**t, we finish it.” “What I believe was that when people acted in violence people did not back down, did not say you were going too far,” Greene said of Proud Boys leadership. Oath Keepers members found guilty of seditious conspiracy Clockwise from top left: Joseph Hackett, Roberto Minuta, Edward Vallejo and David Moerschel Pinellas County Sheriff, US Department of Justice, Homefront Battle Buddies
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