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Los Angeles Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Former DC police officer sentenced to 18 months for lying about leaking info to Proud Boys leader
WASHINGTON — A retired police officer was sentenced Friday to 18 months behind bars for lying to authorities about leaking confidential information to the Proud Boys extremist group's former top leader, who was under investigation for burning a Black Lives Matter banner in the nation's capital. Shane Lamond was a lieutenant for the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., when he fed information about its banner burning investigation to then-Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio. Last December, after a trial without a jury, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson convicted Lamond of one count of obstructing justice and three counts of making false statements. Tarrio attended Lamond's sentencing and later called for President Trump to pardon Lamond. 'I ask that the Justice Department and the president of the United States step in and correct the injustice that I just witnessed inside this courtroom,' Tarrio said outside the courthouse after the sentencing. Prosecutors had recommended a four-year prison sentence for Lamond. 'Because Lamond knew what he did was wrong, he lied to cover it up — not just to the Federal Agents who questioned his actions, but to this Court,' they wrote. 'This is an egregious obstruction of justice and a betrayal of the work of his colleagues at MPD.' Lamond's lawyers argued that a prison sentence wasn't warranted. 'Mr. Lamond gained nothing from his communications with Mr. Tarrio and only sought, albeit in a sloppy and ineffective way, to gain information and intelligence that would help stop the violent protesters coming to D.C. in late 2020, early 2021,' they wrote. Tarrio pleaded guilty to burning the banner stolen from a historic Black church in downtown Washington in December 2020. He was arrested two days before dozens of Proud Boys members stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Tarrio wasn't at the Capitol that day, but a jury convicted him of orchestrating a violent plot to keep Trump in the White House after he lost the 2020 election. Lamond testified at his bench trial that he never provided Tarrio with sensitive police information. Tarrio, who testified as a witness for Lamond's defense, said he did not confess to Lamond about burning the banner and did not receive any confidential information from him. But the judge said she did not find either man's testimony to be credible. Lamond retired in May 2023 after 23 years of service to the police department. Prior to that he 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. Prosecutors said Lamond tipped off Tarrio, whom he had met in 2019, that a warrant for his arrest had been signed. They pointed to messages that suggest Lamond provided Tarrio with real-time updates on the police investigation. Lamond's indictment said he and Tarrio 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 said he was upset that a prosecutor labeled him as a Proud Boys 'sympathizer' who acted as a 'double agent' for the group after Tarrio burned a stolen Black Lives Matter banner in December 2020. 'I don't support the Proud Boys, and I'm not a Proud Boys sympathizer,' Lamond testified. Lamond said he considered Tarrio to be a source, not a friend. But he said he tried to build a friendly rapport with the group leader to gain his trust. Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press.
4 days ago
- Politics
Former DC police officer sentenced to 18 months for lying about leaking info to Proud Boys leader
WASHINGTON -- A retired police officer was sentenced on Friday to serve 18 months behind bars for lying to authorities about leaking confidential information to the Proud Boys extremist group's former top leader, who was under investigation for burning a Black Lives Matter banner in the nation's capital. Shane Lamond was a lieutenant for the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., when he fed information about its banner burning investigation to then-Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio. Last December, after a trial without a jury, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, D.C., convicted Lamond of one count of obstructing justice and three counts of making false statements. Tarrio attended Lamond's sentencing and later called for Trump to pardon Lamond. 'I ask that the Justice Department and the President of the United States step in and correct the injustice that I just witnessed inside this courtroom," Tarrio said outside the courthouse after the sentencing. Prosecutors recommended a four-year prison sentence for Lamond. 'Because Lamond knew what he did was wrong, he lied to cover it up — not just to the Federal Agents who questioned his actions, but to this Court," they wrote. "This is an egregious obstruction of justice and a betrayal of the work of his colleagues at MPD.' Lamond's lawyers argued that a prison sentence isn't warranted. "Mr. Lamond gained nothing from his communications with Mr. Tarrio and only sought, albeit in a sloppy and ineffective way, to gain information and intelligence that would help stop the violent protesters coming to D.C. in late 2020, early 2021," they wrote. Tarrio pleaded guilty to burning the banner stolen from a historic Black church in downtown Washington in December 2020. He was arrested two days before dozens of Proud Boys members stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Tarrio wasn't at the Capitol that day, but a jury convicted him of orchestrating a violent plot to keep President Donald Trump in the White House after he lost the 2020 election. Lamond testified at his bench trial that he never provided Tarrio with sensitive police information. Tarrio, who testified as a witness for Lamond's defense, said he did not confess to Lamond about burning the banner and did not receive any confidential information from him. But the judge did not find either man's testimony to be credible. Jackson said the evidence indicated that Lamond was not using Tarrio as a source after the Dec. 12, 2020, banner burning. 'It was the other way around,' she said. Lamond, of Colonial Beach, Virginia, retired in May 2023 after 23 years of service to the police department. 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. Prosecutors said Lamond tipped off Tarrio that a warrant for his arrest had been signed. They pointed to messages that suggest Lamond provided Tarrio with real-time updates on the police investigation. Lamond's indictment says he and Tarrio 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 said he was upset that a prosecutor labeled him as a Proud Boys 'sympathizer' who acted as a 'double agent' for the group after Tarrio burned a stolen Black Lives Matter banner in December 2020. 'I don't support the Proud Boys, and I'm not a Proud Boys sympathizer,' Lamond testified. Lamond said he considered Tarrio to be a source, not a friend. But he said he tried to build a friendly rapport with the group leader to gain his trust.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Proud Boys Sue DOJ For $100 Million Over Jan. 6 Arrests
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump issued a blanket pardon to more than 1,500 people charged in the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection. But it still wasn't enough. Now, five Proud Boys leaders are suing the Department of Justice (DOJ) over their prosecutions and asking the government to surrender millions. The lawsuit, filed by Dominic Pezzola, Henry 'Enrique' Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joe Biggs, and Zachary Rehl, asks the government to pay them $100 million in restitution, despite the fact that the latter four were found guilty of engaging in a seditious 2021 conspiracy to keep Trump in power. Two years after the riot, Tarrio, Nordean, Biggs and Rehl were found guilty of plotting to oppose Congress' election certification by force. Pezzola was the only one who was acquitted of seditious conspiracy but was still found guilty of assaulting police, stealing a riot shield, smashing a window breached by rioters, conspiring to impede lawmakers and police, and more. The five men filed the lawsuit Friday in Florida, putting the ball in Trump's court to either defend the prosecutions or pay an exorbitant sum at taxpayers' expense. The Proud Boys is a far-right militant organization that promotes political violence and embraces misogynistic, xenophobic, and anti-LGBTQ+ ideologies. If the DOJ decides to pay the Proud Boys members, many Democrats worry that it could symbolize the president's willingness to outwardly sanction political violence and empower extremists. In the pardon proclamation announced on Jan. 20, Trump noted that the controversial mercy 'ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.' Prior to the pardons, Tarrio, Nordean, Biggs, Rehl, and Pezzola were each sentenced to 22, 18, 17, 15, and 10 years in prison, respectively. The Proud Boys members claim there was an 'egregious and systemic abuse of the legal system and the United States Constitution to punish and oppress political allies of President Trump, by any and all means necessary, legal, or illegal.' 'A settlement would suggest that the violence of January 6 was entirely justified,' Matthew Dallek, a political historian at The George Washington University, told The Washington Post. 'It would say to the country that these Proud Boys who were convicted in a court of law, in a fair trial, were wrongfully prosecuted and victims. It just turns the entire day on its head.' The insurrection interrupted Congress' attempt to certify former President Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election. After a mob stormed the Capitol, five people died in or immediately after the violence and 140 officers were assaulted. The Daily Beast has reached out to the Trump administration for comment.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Enrique Tarrio and other freed January 6 convicts sue over prosecutions
Enrique Tarrio, the former national leader of the far-right Proud Boys group, and four other members convicted of orchestrating the deadly 6 January 2021 US Capitol attack are suing the federal government for allegedly violating their rights. A lawsuit filed on Friday in federal court in Florida alleges that FBI agents and prosecutors acted with personal malice when they investigated and charged the five, who were all granted pardons or commutations when Donald Trump returned to office in January. Tarrio and fellow plaintiffs Zachary Rehl, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Dominic Pezzola are seeking unspecified compensatory damages, plus $100m each in punitive damages, according to the lawsuit filed in US district court in Orlando. Tarrio received a 22-year prison sentence in September 2023 for his part in organizing the attack, even though he was not present when Trump's supporters overran the Capitol building bent on keeping him in power after his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Related: Former Capitol attack prosecutor slams Trump pardons of January 6 defendants Nordean, Biggs and Rehl were convicted of seditious conspiracy after the same trial – which lasted almost four months – and given lengthy prison terms. Pezzola was acquitted of seditious conspiracy but handed a 10-year sentence for convictions including destruction of government property. All four, along with 10 others, had their sentences commuted following Trump's sweeping action in January that also granted full and unconditional pardons for about 1,500 people involved in the violence, which was linked to several deaths and the injuries of about 140 law enforcement officers. Trump's order referred to the Capitol attack convicts as 'hostages' and stated: 'This proclamation ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.' According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which reported the lawsuit development on Friday, the plaintiffs claim the government lacked probable cause to raid their homes after they turned themselves in in connection with their indictments – and that FBI employees reviewed privileged communications with their attorneys. 'Through the use of evidence tampering, witness intimidation, violations of attorney-client privilege, and placing spies to report on trial strategy, the government got its fondest wish of imprisoning the [January 6] defendants, the modern equivalent of placing one's enemies' heads on a spike outside the town wall as a warning to any who would think to challenge the status quo,' the lawsuit states. The document also complains that the men were poorly treated during their time in detention, held for an extended pre-trial period without bond, and held in solitary confinement without cause. 'The plaintiffs themselves did not obstruct the proceedings at the Capitol, destroy government property, resist arrest, conspire to impede the police, or participate in civil disorder, nor did they plan for or order anyone else to do so,' the lawsuit continues, contesting evidence presented by prosecutors at their trial. 'Rather, mere statements of approval, agreement, and enthusiasm are apparently enough to form a criminal conspiracy, provided the points of view are offensive enough to employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice, no matter how attenuated from criminal action they may have been.' Neither the FBI nor the justice department immediately responded to requests for comment. Both are now controlled by close Trump allies: Kash Patel, the FBI director, and Pam Bondi, the attorney general. Tarrio was arrested in Washington DC within a month of his release for allegedly striking a woman who was protesting against a gathering attended by Proud Boys members that received pardons. Two days later, he was captured in a video taken in the lobby of a Washington hotel haranguing officers who were injured during the insurrection as they attended a conference. In May, it was reported that the Trump administration had reached a $5m wrongful death settlement with the family of Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter who was fatally shot by a police officer as she attempted to break through a door into the speaker's lobby at the Capitol while participating in the attack. Tarrio, from Miami, told the WSJ in an interview on Friday that he believed the legal environment had changed since Trump's re-election. He said he had finally been able to find a law firm to take his compensation case after failing to find lawyers in Florida to represent him in legal action against social media companies and banks he said had 'deplatformed' people for their political beliefs.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Proud Boys members file federal lawsuit over 'illegal' tactics in Jan. 6 prosecutions
Five members of the Proud Boys are suing the U.S. government and certain employees in the FBI and Department of Justice for $100 million over their Jan. 6 prosecutions. Enrique Tarrio, Zachary Rehl, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Dominic Pezzola allege in the lawsuit the FBI and DOJ violated their constitutional rights with their prosecution over what prosecutors said was their planning of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. In a document filed in a Florida federal court and obtained by Fox News Digital, the men claim "egregious and systemic abuse of the legal system and the United States Constitution to punish and oppress political allies of President Trump, by any and all means necessary, legal, or illegal. "Through the use of evidence tampering, witness intimidation, violations of attorney-client privilege, and placing spies to report on trial strategy, the government got its fondest wish of imprisoning the J6 Defendants, the modern equivalent of placing one's enemies' heads on a spike outside the town wall as a warning to any who would think to challenge the status quo." Outgoing Us Capitol Police Chief Criticizes Trump Pardons For Jan. 6 Defendants Fox News Digital has reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice for comment. Read On The Fox News App Four of the five men were convicted of seditious conspiracy after the attack, and Tarrio faced the harshest punishment — 22 years for planning the attack — of any of the Jan. 6 defendants, according to The Wall Street Journal. Nordean was sentenced to 18 years, Biggs was sentenced to 17 years and Rehl was sentenced to 15 years. Pezzola was found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct Congress and sentenced to 10 years in prison. However, President Donald Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of nearly all the defendants after he took office this year, including Tarrio, Rehl, Nordean, Biggs and Pezzola. Trump Administration Agrees To Pay Ashli Babbitt's Family $5 Million All the men except Tarrio were at the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, according to the Journal. Tarrio had been barred from entering Washington, D.C., because of a previous arrest, The Washington Post reported. "Now that the Plaintiffs are vindicated, free, and able to once again exercise their rights as American citizens, they bring this action against their tormentors for violations of their Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment Rights … as well as the common law tort of malicious prosecution and false imprisonment," the suit adds. Prosecutors said Pezzola was seen on video using a police riot shield to commit the first breach of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6. Prosecutors alleged the men were charged under a "novel theory of criminal conspiracy called the 'tool theory,'" according to the suit. "Despite the legal jiggery-pokery employed by the government to obscure the fact, the Plaintiffs were essentially convicted of 'stochastic terrorism,' a leftist bugbear used to describe rhetoric offensive to them that they claim provokes violent acts." The men also claimed in the lawsuit that the government didn't have probable cause to raid their article source: Proud Boys members file federal lawsuit over 'illegal' tactics in Jan. 6 prosecutions
