DC officer warned Proud Boys leader of potential upcoming arrest, FBI agent testifies

An FBI agent testified Wednesday {that a} Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Division officer advised the chief of the Proud Boys that he could be arrested within the days earlier than January 6, 2021.

Agent Peter Dubrowski advised a jury within the seditious conspiracy trial in opposition to 5 members of the far-right group about Proud Boys chief Enrique Tarrio’s relationship with Metropolitan Police Lt. Shane Lamond, whom Tarrio spoke with a number of occasions earlier than the US Capitol riot.

Their relationship, Dubrowski testified, went past what was applicable for a regulation enforcement agent speaking to a supply.

His testimony is a part of a core disagreement between prosecutors and protection attorneys as as to whether Tarrio, and the Proud Boys as an entire, needed to assist regulation enforcement or have been ready to be violent in opposition to them.

The defendants have all pleaded not responsible.

In a number of cases, Lamond appeared to warn Tarrio about elements of the investigation into whether or not Tarrio burned a DC church’s Black Lives Matter flag in December 2020, Dubrowski testified. Tarrio was later charged with destruction of property for the flag burning and pleaded responsible.

Lamond was positioned on administrative go away by the Metropolitan Police Division in February 2022, and was nonetheless on go away as of December 2022. MPD has not commented on the the reason why Lamond was positioned on go away and didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

“Lt. Lamond’s duties because the commander of the MPD Intelligence Department required him to determine traces of communications with each group that got here to protest or march in Washington, DC,” Lamond’s lawyer Mark Schamel, a accomplice at Venable LLP, advised CNN. Schamel stated Lamond was “solely speaking with these people as a result of the mission required it. Lt. Lamond was instrumental within the arrest of the defendant for his burning of the BLM flag and there’s no authentic regulation enforcement officer who’s acquainted with the information of this case who would opine in any other case.”

In keeping with messages proven by the federal government, Lamond advised Tarrio he would “test with our [investigative] folks to see in the event that they have you ever on video” and advised Tarrio which regulation enforcement businesses have been investigating the flag burning.

Tarrio advised different Proud Boys members in regards to the investigation, prosecutors stated, claiming he bought info from “my contact at DC metro.”

Main as much as Tarrio’s arrest on January 4, 2021, Lamond advised Tarrio an arrest may very well be coming, Dubrowski testified.

Prosecutors stated Lamond messaged Tarrio in late December 2020 saying that investigators “had me ID you from a photograph” and that “they could be submitting an arrest warrant to the US lawyer’s workplace.” On the day of Tarrio’s arrest, Lamond despatched him a self-deleting message Tarrio message. The Proud Boys chief messaged different leaders of the group quickly after saying that an arrest warrant had been signed.

Prosecutors confirmed different messages between Lamond and Tarrio the place the officer gave Tarrio a number of warnings, together with that the group may need “a leak” inside the Proud Boys and that they “want to modify to encrypted” as a result of posts on the social media platform Parler have been getting regulation enforcement “spun up.”

Attorneys for Tarrio have argued in courtroom that their shopper was making an attempt to help police by sharing the group’s plans with Lamond at any time when they got here to the town. Tarrio couldn’t have been plotting to overthrow the federal government, his attorneys say, as a result of he was telling Lamond about their plans.

Tarrio’s lawyer Sabino Jauregui criticized prosecutors on Wednesday, arguing that they have been deliberately making an attempt to make Lamond seem like a “soiled cop” to discredit Lamond as a possible protection witness. He additionally argued that supplied helpful info to the officer, which Lamond despatched to his superiors and to the Capitol Police’s intelligence unit director on the time.

Dubrowski’s testimony undercuts the baseless principle pushed by right-wing figures that people who participated within the January 6 assault have been satisfied to take action by undercover FBI brokers.

He testified Wednesday there have been no undercover brokers on any of the far-right group’s chat rooms earlier than January 6.

The agent testified, nevertheless, that some members of the group acted as informants, detailing to FBI elements of what the Proud Boys have been discussing.

The Proud Boys have been paranoid about what they known as “feds” infiltrating their group, in keeping with recorded video calls and encrypted messages between group members, together with defendants Tarrio and Joseph Biggs.

In keeping with chat information, the group ousted no less than one particular person they believed was an informant. Tarrio messaged different leaders that the person wanted to be “faraway from all chats you guys are included in. ASAP.”