Shane Lamond, the previous head of the Metropolitan Police intelligence unit in Washington who was indicted final 12 months for feeding info to a Proud Boys chief, was discovered responsible on Monday.
Proud Boys chief Enrique Tarrio is serving 22 years after being convicted of seditious conspiracy in reference to the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.
U.S. Judge Amy Berman Jackson returned the decision on Monday discovering Lamond responsible of 4 counts, together with obstruction of justice and three counts of mendacity to investigators, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office mentioned. The verdict adopted a bench trial which featured contentious testimony from Tarrio, who insisted that he’d been contemporaneously mendacity to his fellow Proud Boys about receiving info from a supply within the Metropolitan Police Department.
Prosecutors argued through the trial that Lamond had change into a “double agent” for the Proud Boys, saying he had tipped off Tarrio that there was a warrant out for his arrest in reference to the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner throughout Tarrio’s prior journey to Washington with the Proud Boys.
“I can’t let you know I needed to go to D.C. to get arrested; that sounds bizarre,” Tarrio mentioned on the stand, however defined he needed to journey to Washington two days earlier than Jan. 6 to “get this over with” and to arrange a “circus tent” to make use of his arrest as a “advertising and marketing ploy.”
Matthew Graves, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, mentioned federal prosecutors proved at trial that Lamond “turned his job on its head — offering confidential info to a supply, slightly than getting info from him — lied in regards to the conduct, and obstructed an investigation into the supply.” Lamond, Graves mentioned, was presupposed to play a crucial function in retaining the group secure, and his “violation of the belief positioned in him put our group extra in danger and can’t be ignored.”
David Sundberg, FBI assistant director in command of the Washington Field Office, famous that Lamond took an oath to faithfully execute the regulation.
“Instead, he broke the regulation by offering confidential info to a supply, obstructing an investigation into that supply, and mendacity to federal investigators,” Sundberg mentioned. “His conviction is a testomony to the FBI’s work to carry public officers to justice for abusing their positions of energy and belief.”
Donald Trump has vowed to start pardoning Jan. 6 defendants when he takes workplace in lower than a month. It is unclear if Tarrio is among the many greater than 1,500 defendants charged and greater than 1,100 defendants convicted who may obtain a pardon, and sources in each the Jan. 6 and regulation enforcement communities advised NBC News that it is clear Trump will not be learn in on the small print of the circumstances.
Lamond’s protection mentioned that his communications with Tarrio have been part of his job, however prosecutors produced proof through which Lamond wrote of his affinity for the Proud Boys, even after the Jan. 6 assault.
“Of course I can’t say it formally,” Lamond wrote, in response to prosecutors, “however personally I assist you all and don’t wish to see your group’s identify or status dragged by means of the mud.”