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WASHINGTON (CN) — Former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio took the stand Thursday to testify on behalf of a former D.C. police officer facing charges of obstructing a police investigation in 2020 and tipping Tarrio off about his looming arrest.
Tarrio — who is currently serving a 22-year sentence for his role in planning the Proud Boys’ violence at the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — rejected prosecutors’ assertions that he received updates on the probe from Lieutenant Shane Lamond.
According to prosecutors, Lamond, a 24-year veteran of the Metropolitan Police Department, falsely denied that he tipped Tarrio off about the progress of a probe and his impending arrest on Jan. 4, 2021, which stemmed from Tarrio’s role in burning a Black Lives Matter flag from a historic Black church on Dec. 12, 2020.
Tarrio said that he mainly communicated with Lamond in advance of pro-Trump events in Washington. He said he only heard about the flag-burning probe from public posts by the MPD and FBI on Twitter, now X.
Questioned by defense attorney Mark Schamel of Washington firm Venable, Tarrio said that 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. He said he hoped to make a “circus” out of his arrest.
He added that 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.
According to prosecutors, Tarrio had purchased in-flight Wi-Fi and received a Telegram message from Lamond that his arrest warrant had been signed, which Tarrio relayed to certain associates.
When confronted with screenshots from the nearly 700 messages FBI agents had recovered from Lamond’s phone, Tarrio refused to verify them, repeatedly stating that he either couldn’t remember or did not trust the evidence’s source.
“I will not confirm or deny messages extracted by Cellebrite,” Tarrio said repeatedly, referencing a digital extraction tool prosecutors regularly use to investigate cell phones and computers.
Tarrio remained combative on the stand, at one point forcing U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson to take a break after he was asked about Jan. 6 and attempted to invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to answer.
Jackson, a Barack Obama appointee, reminded Tarrio that Lamond’s trial was pushed from its original start date in September because Tarrio invoked the privilege and said he would testify after the November election, a promise he repeated on Wednesday.
Tarrio said he wanted to be able to pick and choose where he could invoke the Fifth Amendment. He argued he had only waived “part of it.”
“You don’t have half a Fifth Amendment right,” Jackson said. She warned that his refusal could lead her to either strike his testimony or hold him in contempt.
In one exchange with Justice Department prosecutor Rebecca Ross, regarding a Dec. 15 meeting the pair had at the Dubliner pub in Washington, Tarrio denied sending or receiving any messages planning the meeting.
But when Jackson asked Tarrio if the meeting happened as described in the messages, Tarrio said yes.
Looming over Tarrio’s contradictory testimony is the chance that President-elect Donald Trump will pardon him. Such a move would release him from prison early and could protect him from future criminal charges, such as perjury or contempt.
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 — claiming that his communications with Tarrio were mostly “one-sided." He denied tipping off Tarrio about his arrest warrant.
Tarrio testified that his messages to fellow Proud Boys and associates that he was receiving inside information from Lamond about the investigation was merely to boost his reputation.
“I wanted to up my credibility with the guys," Tarrio said, claiming such messages were lies. “If you’ve got an inside guy, you’re the guy.”
Ross then asked Tarrio why Jackson should believe what he was saying today, in the same courthouse where he was convicted of seditious conspiracy and several conspiracy charges related to Jan. 6.
“Well," Tarrio replied, “I wasn’t convicted of perjury.”
On Friday afternoon, the court is expected to hear from Lamond himself. Schamel told Jackson his client would take the stand before the defense rests its case. Closing arguments are set for Monday, Dec. 9.
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