Hello court watchers! I hope you’re well today and further, I hope we have a chance to actually hear testimony from Jeremy Bertino, the first and (so far) only Proud Boy to plead guilty to seditious conspiracy.
He was expected to appear on the witness stand Wednesday but did not since the redirect and then, re-cross examination of FBI Agent Peter Dubrowski took up an entire day of proceedings.
That recross is expected to continue this morning but the only parties left to question Dubrowski are Tarrio’s attorney Sabino Jauregui and Dominic Pezzola’s attorney, Roger Roots.
Jurors had a chance on Wednesday to review a series of text messages between Henry "Enrique" Tarrio and Shane Lamond, a D.C. police officer that was suspended without pay after his communications with Tarrio came to light.
Now, the defense has argued that Lamond can help prove that a conspiracy to stop the certification didn't exist because, according to Tarrio's lawyers, the comms show how Proud Boys were merely keeping law enforcement apprised of their activities for legitimate logistical reasons.
But what jurors saw in Tarrio and Lamond's texts thus far (that I'm linking to here and in my next tweet) didn't quite indicate that as much as it exposed how often Lamond tipped Tarrio off about enforcement issues involving the PBs/ Tarrio directly.
Lamond_Tarrio Comms July 20... by Daily Kos
Here is the next batch of communications between Shane Lamond and Tarrio: These run from Dec. 18,2020 to Jan. 4, 2021:
Lamond_Tarrio Comms Decembe... by Daily Kos
Lamond has not been charged with any crimes and he has denied any wrongdoing. He's been suspended without pay as he's been under investigation.
Tarrio's attorney, Sabino Jauregui, has wanted to Lamond to testify on his client's behalf but the prosecution said in court yesterday, Lamond will plead the 5th if called.
Lamond would share insider info with Tarrio on many things like—most glaringly—when he told Tarrio he was under investigation for stealing and burning a Black Lives Matter banner in Dec. and that he would let him know if cops had him doing this on video already.
Adding to that, the Telegram chats show Tarrio asking Lamond whether the theft and burning of a BLM banner from a historic Black church in DC would be enhanced to a hate crime charge. Lamond told him it wasn't his beat and that the investigation into the flag burning was going to the FBI. But Lamond did tell Tarrio that when he spoke to criminal investigators, he expressed his view that the Proud Boys weren't racist because they had Black and Latino membership.
Lamond also told Tarrio how law enforcement agencies like the FBI and U.S. Secret Service were "all spun up" when Tarrio appeared on InfoWars saying Proud Boys would appear at public events incognito or more specifically, appearing as supporters of President Joe Biden.
When FBI Agent Peter Dubrowski was on the stand yesterday, he repeatedly testified that what he reviewed in the Lamond-Tarrio comms was abnormal and that this was not the proper or typical relationship one might see between a confidential human source and law enforcement.
