Proud Boys want DC police officer to testify in their defense at upcoming trial

Attorneys for Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio exposed in court Friday that they prepare to argue throughout their December seditious conspiracy trial that the reactionary extremist group was in touch with police about their strategies to rally in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021.

Tarrio talked to Metropolitan Authorities Lt. Shane Lamond numerous times about the group’s strategies to participate in rallies in the district around the time of the 2020 election, according to Nayib Hassan, a lawyer for Tarrio. Hassan stated he wishes to call Lamond as a defense witness.

” How can there be sedition if they’re notifying police” of their strategies?” Hassan asked District Judge Timothy Kelly throughout a pretrial conference Friday.

Hassan stated the officer had actually been threatened by the Justice Department with blockage charges if he chooses to affirm to interactions he had with Tarrio since his statement “would totally and absolutely ruin [the DOJ’s] case.”.

District attorney Erik Kenerson unconditionally rejected the accusation, informing Kelly the concept that “the federal government has actually in some way threatened witnesses … all of that is simply unconditionally incorrect.” Kenerson stated witnesses “do not belong” to defense lawyer or district attorneys which defense counsel has actually understood about the federal government’s contacts with Lamond for months.

Tarrio and 4 other members of the Proud Boys are set to go on trial on December 19 for charges associating with the January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol, consisting of seditious conspiracy. All 5 have actually pleaded innocent.

According to sources knowledgeable about the matter, DC Authorities positioned Lamond on administrative leave in February 2022. DC Authorities informed CNN on Friday that Lamond is still on administrative leave however would not discuss the reasons.

” Lt. Lamond has actually committed his life to eliminating the unlawful conduct that took place on January sixth and is adamantly opposed to those who stir worry and hatred and knocks the violent conduct of all those who supported the insurrection and assaulted our city and our country on January sixth,” Lamond’s lawyer, Mark Schamel, stated in a declaration.

” Lt. Lamond’s embellished profession has actually been to safeguard this city and this country and he has actually never ever done anything to help the bad guys who assaulted our democracy on January sixth,” Schamel included.

Tarrio informed CNN at the time Lamond was put on leave that he saw Lamond as his DC Authorities “intermediary” and was in touch with Lamond “anytime [Proud Boys] went to rally in DC.”.

” It is ludicrous to state that he was doing something inappropriate. He actually was keeping 2 groups from encountering one another by letting me understand where Antifa or BLM protesters were so that we might prevent facing them,” Tarrio informed CNN in a February interview. “Isn’t having interaction to avoid violence what neighborhood policing is everything about?”.