WASHINGTON — A federal decide on Tuesday ordered Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, the previous chief of the Proud Boys at present serving 22 years for seditious conspiracy, to look for doable testimony within the trial of Shane Lamond, a former D.C. Metropolitan Police lieutenant dealing with a number of felony costs for allegedly obstructing a probe into the Proud Boys and repeatedly mendacity to investigators.
Lamond’s protection attorneys need Tarrio to testify on the bench trial as a result of they argue it would show that Lamond’s communication with Tarrio after the 2020 election was a part of the lieutenant’s official duties as chief of the police division’s intelligence division.
Federal prosecutors, nonetheless, say the connection between Tarrio and Lamond was corrupt. U.S. attorneys argue Lamond was a Proud Boys sympathizer who labored as a “double agent” on the division.
Lamond, who’s charged with obstruction of justice and making a number of false statements, is accused of passing info to Tarrio a few police probe into the Proud Boys and the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner on Dec. 12, 2020. Tarrio has pleaded responsible to burning the banner and was sentenced to 5 months in jail. He was additionally convicted on seditious conspiracy costs final yr, and is now serving a 22-year jail sentence — thus far, the longest sentence of any Jan. 6 defendant.
Presiding U.S. District Choose Amy Berman Jackson stated Tuesday that she needs Tarrio transferred from jail to her courtroom by Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutors might relaxation their case towards Lamond at the moment and formally flip the ground over to the protection.
On Tuesday, Lamond, clear minimize and sporting a grey swimsuit, spent a lot of the day sitting subsequent to his attorneys, chatting quietly with them as U.S. legal professional Rebecca Ross pulled up textual content after textual content for the decide.
Ross argued that the messages, which have been despatched between November 2020 and January 2021, confirmed a pleasant and regular repartee between Tarrio and Lamond that solely grew within the weeks after Donald Trump misplaced the 2020 election.
On the evening the 2020 election was referred to as for President Joe Biden, for instance, Lamond texted Tarrio to examine in.
“Hey brother,” he wrote on Nov. 7, 2020. “Unhappy, unhappy information right this moment. You all planning something?”
Tarrio replied with an image exhibiting he was out off-roading.
“Good. Want I used to be there as an alternative of right here. Let me know when you do something later,” Lamond replied.
Earlier than Nov. 7, Tarrio and Lamond primarily spoke by unencrypted textual content channels and barely used Telegram or Telegram’s non-public chat characteristic to attach. Of roughly 280 messages the boys shared previous to Nov. 7, most have been despatched by way of SMS/textual content, in line with testimony heard Tuesday from an FBI particular agent.
EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI by way of Getty Pictures
Tarrio attended a pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 12, 2020. Prosecutors stated Proud Boys members stole a Black Lives Matter banner from a church the evening after the rally, then set it on hearth. Tarrio posted a photograph of himself on the far-right social media web site Parler holding an unlit lighter; he later admitted on-line to destroying the banner.
The rally turned violent that evening and led to a number of stabbings. Proud Boys member Jeremy Bertino, who pleaded responsible to seditious conspiracy in October 2022 for his conduct on Jan. 6, was amongst those that have been stabbed. Tensions have been excessive the following evening too, with Proud Boys starting to voice their mistrust and frustration with police.
Ross confirmed the decide texts exhibiting Lamond had reached out to Tarrio after Bertino’s stabbing. On Dec. 12, he advised the Proud Boys chief that “on a brighter observe,” police had locked up the one who stabbed Bertino. The next day, Tarrio requested Lamond outright for his evaluation of how D.C. police truly seen the Proud Boys, in line with texts proven by prosecutors.
That reply, Lamond wrote, was “too difficult” for a textual content message. The boys agreed to fulfill at an area bar.
Different data confirmed that when Lamond advised his supervisor on the time, Carolyn Montagna, in regards to the meetup, she replied: “Eek. Is that good to do social?”
Lamond assured her it was.
A day after that assembly, Tarrio fired off texts to Proud Boys during which he lamented that he could also be going to jail for a hate crime after speaking to “his man” on the division.
On the time, police have been investigating whether or not to boost Tarrio’s destruction of property cost with a hate crime cost. They in the end didn’t. The primary secret chat Lamond opened with Tarrio on Telegram, Ross stated, solely got here after police obtained against the law solvers tip on-line claiming Tarrio was answerable for burning the BLM banner.
Lamond requested Tarrio if he had submitted the tip on himself, and Tarrio stated he had accomplished greater than that: He admitted to burning the banner on social media. Different texts revealed Tuesday confirmed Tarrio boasting to different Proud Boys that his confession to the crime allowed Proud Boys to “[get] the leap” on the “hate crime narrative” within the press.
The group, which espouses Western chauvinist values, claims it’s not a racist group largely by pointing to the variety of its membership, together with Tarrio, who’s Latino. In an e mail to his supervisors in late 2020, Lamond stated the Proud Boys group wasn’t racist.
Lamond advised Tarrio he had shared this opinion with higher-ups on the division. He additionally advised Tarrio he advocated towards bringing the hate crime enhancement as a result of, as he advised his supervisors, if Tarrio have been going to be charged with a hate crime for burning the BLM banner, then all Trump flags or banners taken by “antifa” must be investigated as a hate crime.
“Ah okay superior,” Tarrio replied to Lamond.
Tarrio took a screenshot of Lamond’s textual content and handed the message alongside to Proud Boys group chats.
As Jan. 6, 2021, approached, in line with texts Ross confirmed the decide, Lamond knowledgeable Tarrio that police wished to interview him in regards to the burning of the banner. Prosecutors confirmed that a number of audio information — which at the moment are unrecoverable — had been shared between Lamond and Tarrio after which later deleted. A number of the calls lasted simply seconds. One name lasted as much as 28 minutes.
Ross identified to the decide that data present Lamond and Tarrio talked at the least 24 occasions for over a minute earlier than Tarrio was lastly arrested on Jan. 4, 2021. Notably, Lamond advised detectives drafting Tarrio’s warrant that he had solely seen Tarrio 5 – 6 occasions, Ross stated. And he by no means talked about all the discussions he had with Tarrio outdoors of these conferences, MPD Lieutenant Ahsan Mufti testified on Monday.
In the course of the Proud Boys seditious conspiracy trial, prosecutors argued that Tarrio used his arrest for the burning of the BLM banner as an alibi for his whereabouts on Jan. 6. He couldn’t have been on the Capitol as a result of he was ordered out of Washington, D.C. As an alternative, he watched from a lodge room in Baltimore, Maryland, because the revolt was carried out.
Texts Ross confirmed Tuesday additionally recommended Tarrio was feeling the strain to get to D.C. as he awaited phrase from Lamond on whether or not an arrest warrant had been accepted. He had already purchased his airline tickets.
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“If I stroll into the station on the 4th, they may haven’t any selection however to choose me up,” Tarrio wrote in a message to a different Proud Boy earlier than boarding the flight to D.C.
Data confirmed the warrant had been issued by the point Tarrio obtained on the aircraft, and texts present that Lamond modified a self-destruct timer on his chats with Tarrio as soon as the Proud Boys chief was en route, Ross advised the decide. As an alternative of self-deleting each 30 seconds, they started to vanish after simply 10 seconds.