A police officer accused of leaking confidential information to Proud Boys national leader Enrique Tarrio became a “double agent” for the far-right extremist group after its members burned a stolen Black Lives Matter banner in the nation’s capital, a federal prosecutor said Monday at the start of the officer’s trial.

Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Shane Lamond was a “Proud Boys sympathizer” who warned Tarrio about his impending arrest for the banner’s destruction and later lied to investigators about their communications, said the prosecutor, Joshua Rothstein.

“He knew the difference between right and wrong, and he knew it was a crime to lie to law enforcement,” Rothstein said during opening statements for Lamond’s trial.

Lamond, who was arrested in May 2023, is charged with one count of obstruction of justice and three counts of making false statements. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson will decide the case after hearing testimony without a jury.

Ana Jara, one of Lamond’s attorneys, said describing the veteran officer as a Proud Boys sympathizer is inflammatory and “simply not true.” Jara said prosecutors are asking the judge to view “cherry-picked” messages between Lamond and Tarrio “in a vacuum” without the proper context.

“Context matters, especially in conversations,” Jara said.

Tarrio, who could be a key witness at Lamond’s trial, is serving a 22-year prison sentence after a jury convicted him and other Proud Boys leaders of seditious conspiracy charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The judge said Tarrio was waiting for the outcome of last month’s presidential election before deciding whether to testify at Lamond’s trial. President-elect Donald Trump, who repeatedly has vowed to pardon people convicted of Capitol riot charges, suggested he would consider pardoning Tarrio.

Tarrio was arrested in Washington two days before Proud Boys members joined a mob’s attack on the Capitol. The Miami resident wasn’t at the Capitol when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building and interrupted the congressional certification of President Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

Tarrio was sentenced to more than five months in jail for burning the banner stolen from a historic Black church in downtown Washington and for bringing two high-capacity firearm magazines into the district.

Lamond, who met Tarrio in 2019, had supervised the intelligence branch of the police department’s Homeland Security Bureau. He was responsible for monitoring groups like the Proud Boys when they came to Washington.

Lamond’s name repeatedly came up during Tarrio’s 2023 trial. The men exchanged hundreds of messages across several platforms, with Lamond frequently greeting Tarrio with the words “hey brother.”

Rothstein said Lamond provided Tarrio with “real-time updates” on the police investigation of the Dec. 12, 2020, banner burning. Tarrio, in turn, shared the updates with other Proud Boys members.

“This play-by-play information allowed the Proud Boys to be one step ahead of law enforcement,” the prosecutor said.

In a message to Tarrio on Dec. 25, 2020, Lamond said police investigators had asked him to identify Tarrio from a photograph. Lamond warned Tarrio that police may be seeking a warrant for his arrest.

Later, on the day of his arrest, Tarrio posted a message to other Proud Boys leaders that said, “The warrant was just signed.”

Lamond’s indictment accuses him of lying to and misleading federal investigators when they questioned him in June 2021 about his contacts with Tarrio.

“The defendant knew the truth, and he chose to lie anyway,” Rothstein said.

The indictment also says Tarrio and Lamond exchanged messages about the Jan. 6 riot and discussed whether Proud Boys members were in danger of being charged in the attack.

“Of course I can’t say it officially, but personally I support you all and don’t want to see your group’s name and reputation dragged through the mud,” Lamond wrote.

Lamond, of Stafford, Va., was placed on administrative leave in February 2022.

The first government witness to testify at Lamond’s trial was Metropolitian Police Lt. Ahsan Mufti, who investigated the banner burning and obtained a warrant for Tarrio’s arrest.

Mufti said Lamond didn’t tell him that Tarrio had personally confessed to him that he had burned the banner. Mufti said that would have helped his investigation. However, Tarrio also publicly confessed to the crime on social media before his arrest.

On cross-examination, Mufti said Lamond helped him identify Tarrio’s image in a photograph and his voice on a podcast.

“He was in fact quite helpful?” defense attorney Mark Schamel asked.

“He was,” Mufti replied.

The post Police officer became ‘double agent’ for Proud Boys, prosecutor says appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced Tuesday to 22 years in prison for orchestrating a failed plot to keep Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 election, capping the case with the stiffest punishment that has been handed down yet for the U.S. Capitol attack.

Tarrio, 39, pleaded for leniency before the judge imposed the prison term topping the 18-year sentences given to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and one-time Proud Boys leader Ethan Nordean for seditious conspiracy and other convictions stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.

Tarrio, who led the neofacist group as it became a force in mainstream Republican circles, lowered his head after the sentence was imposed, then squared his shoulders. He raised his hand and made a “V” gesture with his fingers as he was led out of the courtroom in orange jail garb.

His sentencing comes as the Justice Department prepares to put Trump on trial at the same courthouse in Washington on charges that the then-president illegally schemed to cling to power that he knew had been stripped away by voters.

Rising to speak before the sentence was handed down, Tarrio called Jan. 6 a “national embarrassment,” and apologized to the police officers who defended the Capitol and the lawmakers who fled in fear. His voice cracked as he said he let down his family and vowed that he is done with politics.

“I am not a political zealot. Inflicting harm or changing the results of the election was not my goal,” Tarrio said. “Please show me mercy,” he said, adding, “I ask you that you not take my 40s from me.”

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who was appointed to the bench by Trump, said Tarrio was motivated by “revolutionary zeal” to lead the conspiracy that resulted in “200 men, amped up for battle, encircling the Capitol.” Noting that Tarrio had not previously shown any remorse publicly for his crimes, the judge said a stiff punishment was necessary to deter future political violence.

“It can’t happen again. It can’t happen again,” the judge repeated.

Tarrio and three lieutenants were convicted in May of seditious conspiracy and other crimes after a months-long trial that served as a vivid reminder of the violent chaos fueled by Trump’s lies about the election that helped inspire right-wing extremists like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

Prosecutors had sought 33 years behind bars for Tarrio, describing him as the ringleader of a plot to use violence to shatter the cornerstone of American democracy and overturn the election victory by Joe Biden, a Democrat, over Trump, the Republican incumbent.

Prosecutor Conor Mulroe told the judge that the Proud Boys came dangerously close to succeeding in their plot — and noted that “it didn’t take rifles or explosives.”

“There was a very real possibility we were going to wake up on Jan. 7 in a full-blown constitutional crisis,” Mulroe said, with “300 million Americans having no idea who the next president would be or how it would be decided.”

Tarrio wasn’t in Washington, D.C, when Proud Boys members joined thousands of Trump supporters, who smashed windows, beat police officers and poured into the House and Senate chambers as lawmakers met to certify Biden’s victory. But prosecutors say the Miami resident organized and led the Proud Boys’ assault from afar, inspiring followers with his charisma and penchant for propaganda.

Tarrio’s lawyers denied the Proud Boys had any plan to attack the Capitol or stop the certification of Biden’s victory. They argued that prosecutors used Tarrio as a scapegoat for Trump, who spoke at the “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6 and urged his supporters to “fight like hell.”

Tarrio’s younger sister, fiancé and mother tearfully urged the judge to show mercy before the sentence was imposed. Tarrio took off his glasses and wiped his eyes as he listened to his mother speak.

The defense asked for no more than 15 years in prison, arguing that their client should not be punished as harshly as the Oath Keepers’ Rhodes, who was present on Capitol grounds on Jan. 6.

Defense attorney Nayib Hassan told reporters after the hearing that they will appeal.

Tarrio’s lawyers described him as a “keyboard ninja,” who was prone to “talk trash,” but had no intentions of overthrowing the government. The Proud Boys’ only plans that day were to protest the election and confront left-wing antifa activists, attorney Sabino Jauregui told the judge.

“My client is no terrorist,” Jauregui said. “My client is a misguided patriot.”

Tarrio had been arrested two days before the Capitol riot on charges that he defaced a Black Lives Matter banner during an earlier rally in the nation’s capital, and he had complied with a judge’s order to leave the city after his arrest.

The judge agreed with prosecutors that the Proud Boys’ crimes could be punished as “terrorism” — increasing the recommended sentence under federal guidelines. But he ultimately sentenced the Proud Boys to shorter prison terms than those sought by prosecutors.

The backbone of the government’s case was hundreds of messages exchanged by Proud Boys in the days leading up to Jan. 6 that prosecutors say showed how the extremists saw themselves as revolutionaries and celebrated the Capitol attack, which sent lawmakers running into hiding.

The judge pointed to Tarrio’s messages cheering on the Capitol attack and the Proud Boys’ role in it.

“Make no mistake,” Tarrio wrote in one message. “We did this.” In another post as the Proud Boys swarmed the Capitol, Tarrio commanded: “Do what must be done.” In a Proud Boys encrypted group chat later that day someone asked what they should do next. Tarrio responded, “Do it again.”

He is the final Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy to receive his punishment. Three fellow Proud Boys found guilty by a Washington jury of the rarely used sedition charge were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 15 to 18 years.

The Justice Department is appealing the 18-year prison sentence of Rhodes, the Oath Keepers founder, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy in a separate case, as well as the sentences of other members of his antigovernment militia group that were lighter than what prosecutors had sought. Prosecutors had requested 25 years in prison for Rhodes.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Proud Boys’ Enrique Tarrio gets record 22 years in prison for Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Jeremy Joseph Bertino, 43, has agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation of the role that Proud Boys leaders played in the mob’s attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a federal prosecutor said. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly agreed to release Bertino pending a sentencing hearing, which wasn’t immediately scheduled.

Bertino also pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawfully possessing firearms in March 2022 in Belmont, North Carolina. Kelly accepted his guilty plea to both charges during a brief hearing after the case against Bertino was filed Thursday.

Justice Department prosecutor Erik Kenerson said estimated sentencing guidelines for Bertino’s case recommend a prison sentence ranging from four years and three months to five years and three months. The Civil War-era seditious conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Former Proud Boys national chairman Henry “Ënrique” Tarrio and four other group members also have been charged with seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors say was a coordinated attack on the Capitol to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory over Donald Trump.

Bertino’s cooperation could ratchet up the pressure on other Proud Boys charged in the siege.

A trial for Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola is scheduled to start in December. The charging document for Bertino’s case names those five defendants and a sixth Proud Boys member as his co-conspirators.

A trial is going on now in Washington for the seditious conspiracy case against the founder of the Oath Keepers and other members of the antigovernment militia group for their participation in the Jan. 6 attack.

More than three dozen people charged in the Capitol riot have been identified by federal authorities as leaders, members or associates of the Proud Boys. Two — Matthew Greene and Charles Donohoe — pleaded guilty to conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress for certifying the Electoral College vote.

Proud Boys members describe the group as a politically incorrect men’s club for “Western chauvinists.” They have brawled with antifascist activists at rallies and protests. Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, who founded the Proud Boys in 2016, sued the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling it as a hate group.

Nordean, of Auburn, Washington, was a Proud Boys chapter president and a member of the group’s national “Elders Council.” Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, is a self-described Proud Boys organizer. Rehl was president of the Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia. Pezzola is a Proud Boys member from Rochester, New York.

Video testimony by Bertino was featured in June at the first hearing by the House committee investigating Jan. 6. The committee showed a clip of Bertino saying that the group’s membership “tripled, probably” after Trump’s comment at a presidential debate that the Proud Boys should “stand back and stand by.”

Tarrio wasn’t in Washington on Jan. 6, but authorities say he helped put into motion the violence that day. Police arrested Tarrio in Washington two days before the riot and charged him with vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church during a protest in December 2020. Tarrio was released from jail on Jan. 14 after serving his five-month sentence for that case.

The indictment in Tarrio’s case alleges that the Proud Boys held meetings and communicated over encrypted messages to plan for the attack in the days leading up to Jan. 6. On the day of the riot, authorities say Proud Boys dismantled metal barricades set up to protect the Capitol and mobilized, directed and led members of the crowd into the building.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Riot plea: Proud Boys member admits to seditious conspiracy appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.