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WASHINGTON (CN) — A federal judge on Monday found former D.C. Police Lt. Shane Lamond guilty of tipping off ex-Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio to a looming arrest for burning a Black Lives Matter flag days ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson convicted Lamond, the former supervisor of the Intelligence Branch of the Metropolitan Police Department, of one count of obstruction of justice and three counts of making false statements following a seven-day bench trial.
“The defendant was not using Tarrio as a source; it was the other way around,” the Barack Obama appointee said as she handed down the verdict. “He knew then, and he knows now, that it was wrong.”
With his conviction on the obstruction charge, Lamond faces a maximum penalty of 30 years.
Evidence shown at trial showed that Lamond exchanged nearly 700 messages with Tarrio in the months leading up to the Nov. 7, 2020, election through Jan. 27, 2021, over iMessage and Telegram. FBI special agent Elizabeth Hadley testified at trial that she recovered 676 messages between the pair, with several more either unrecoverable or intentionally deleted.
While on the witness stand, Tarrio — who is currently serving a 22-year sentence for his role in planning the Proud Boys’ violence on Jan. 6 — rejected prosecutors’ assertions that he received updates on the probe from Lamond.
When confronted with screenshots from the the nearly 700 messages, Tarrio refused to verify them, repeatedly stating he either couldn’t remember or did not trust the evidence gleaned from Cellebrite — a digital extraction tool investigators regularly use to probe cellphones and computers.
Questioned by defense attorney Mark Schamel of Washington firm Venable, Tarrio said he flew to Washington on Jan. 4 so he would be arrested and released in time for Jan. 6.
“I wanted to be arrested for burning the banner,” Tarrio testified, adding he’d hoped to make a “circus” out of his arrest. He said he had no prior knowledge of his arrest warrant, only a feeling that he would be arrested upon landing.
“I can tell you with 100% certainty that Shane Lamond did not tell me anything on that plane,” Tarrio said.
Lamond first established contact with Tarrio to gather intelligence about Proud Boy movements during demonstrations and would regularly share information with his superiors and intelligence officers from other agencies in and around Washington, Hadley testified.
But after President Joe Biden’s electoral victory was called on Nov. 7, the messages became more frequent and moved to Telegram, where they could send private, so-called “secret” messages and set “self-destruct timers” to delete any following messages sent.
“Hey brother, sad, sad news today,” Lamond texted Tarrio on Nov. 7, according to exhibits of their messages displayed in court.
The pair texted frequently over the next month through Dec. 12, 2020, when Tarrio attended a second Million MAGA March and burned the Black Lives Matter flag.
On Dec. 13, the Metropolitan Police Department opened an investigation into the incident as a possible hate crime. Lamond texted Tarrio about the probe and set up an in-person meeting on Dec. 15, where Tarrio said he “admitted” to burning the flag.
Hadley testified that as the investigation progressed, Lamond repeatedly “undermined” the probe by providing Tarrio real-time updates, including about the status of any photo evidence showing the flag burning.
At one point, Lamond’s superiors asked him whether he thought the Proud Boys was a white supremacist organization and he said no.
“If anything I said it’s political, but then I drew attention to the Trump and American flags that were taken by antifa and set on fire,” Lamond messaged Tarrio in a Telegram “secret” chat. “I said all those would have to be classified as hate crimes too. It’s not being investigated by FBI though. Just us (MPD).”
The same message was then copied and pasted into a Proud Boys group chat titled “Skull and Bones” a minute later.
On Dec. 25, Lamond sent a self-deleting message warning Tarrio that he had identified him in a photo tying him to the flag burning and that an arrest warrant would soon follow. At the same time, Lamond was working to obtain Tarrio’s flight information before he returned to Washington on Jan. 4, 2021.
While Tarrio was en route, Lamond informed Tarrio that his arrest warrant had been signed, which Tarrio relayed to certain associates 28 minutes later.
Lamond was arrested in May 2023 and charged with one count of obstruction of justice and three counts of making false statements. Lamond pleaded not guilty.
U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves said in a statement Monday that Lamond’s conduct violated the Washington community’s trust and “cannot be ignored.”
“As proven at trial, Lamond turned his job on its head — providing confidential information to a source, rather than getting information from him — lied about the conduct, and obstructed an investigation into the source,” Graves said in the statement. “The intelligence gathering role that Lamond was supposed to play is critical to keeping our community safe.”
Jackson set Lamond’s sentencing for April 3, 2025.
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