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WASHINGTON (CN) — A bench trial continued Tuesday in the case of a former D.C. police lieutenant facing federal charges of tipping off ex-Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio to a looming arrest days before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Federal prosecutors described Shane Lamond as a “Proud Boys sympathizer” and “double agent” funneling information to the far-right militia group during opening arguments which took place before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Monday.
According to prosecutors, Lamond falsely denied that he tipped Tarrio off about the progress of a probe and impending arrest on Jan. 4, 2021, for his role in burning a Black Lives Matter flag torn from a historic Black church in downtown Washington during a pro-Trump rally on Dec. 12, 2020.
Tarrio — who is currently serving a 22-year sentence for his role in planning the Proud Boy’s violence at the Jan. 6 riot — is expected to testify as Lamond’s first witness on Wednesday.
Tuesday’s proceedings centered on Lamond and Tarrio’s extensive messages 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 that she recovered 676 messages.
On Monday, defense attorney Ana Jara of Washington firm Veneble, argued that prosecutors had misinterpreted a handful of “cherry-picked” texts.
“Lamond used Tarrio as a contact to get information about where Proud Boys were demonstrating, and Lamond used that information to do his job, which was to gather information about First Amendment activity to help law enforcement,” Sara said.
Hadley testified that in the months leading up to the 2020 election, the pair exchanged 185 iMessages.
Lamond regularly shared information he received from Tarrio with his superiors and intelligence officers from other agencies in and around Washington, primarily through a group chat labeled “Intel,” 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 was asked whether he thought the Proud Boys were a white supremacist organization, to which 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 actively flying, 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. If convicted of the obstruction charge, he faces a maximum penalty of 30 years.
According to the indictment, Lamond made three false statements to a pair of U.S. attorney’s office investigators on June 2, 2021, that his communications with Tarrio were mostly “one-sided,” when Lamond knowingly provided confidential law enforcement information, denied he tipped off Tarrio and denied he informed Tarrio of his arrest warrant.
Prosecutors told Jackson they intend to wrap their case Wednesday afternoon, setting up a potential verdict by Jackson before the end of the day Friday.
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