DC police officer convicted of tipping off Proud Boys leader before Capitol attack | Washington DC | The Guardian
Enrique Tarrio rallies with the Proud Boys in Portland, Oregon, in 2019.
Enrique Tarrio rallies with the Proud Boys in Portland, Oregon, in 2019.
Washington DC DC police officer convicted of tipping off Proud Boys leader before Capitol attack
Shane Lamond found guilty of leaking to Enrique Tarrio that a warrant was out for his arrest before January 6
The former head of the Metropolitan police intelligence unit in Washington DChas been found guilty of tipping off Enrique Tarrio – the imprisoned, one-time leader of the Proud Boys – that a warrant was out for his arrest before the January 6 Capitol attackin 2021.
Shane Lamond has been charged with tipping off Tarrio, who at the time of the Capitol attack was wanted for the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner.
Tarrio is currently serving 22 years after being convicted of seditious conspiracy in connection with the Capitol riot.
Tarrio was arrested when he arrived in Washington on a flight from Miami two days before the attack.
Former Proud Boys leader sentenced to 22 years over US Capitol attack
During Tarrio’s testimony to the court, he said he wanted to travel to Washington before the January 6 attack to “get this over with” – and to set up a “circus tent” to use his arrest as a “marketing ploy”.
Lamond was found guilty on Monday of four counts, including one of obstruction of justice and three of lying to investigators.
The verdict followed a bench trial that featured testimony from Tarrio, who maintained he had been contemporaneously lying to his fellow Proud Boys about receiving information from a source in the Washington DCpolice department.
A federal grand jury charged Lamond in May 2023 with obstructing the investigation into the burning of the banner a month before the Capitol attack – when the Proud Boys were roaming the streets of Washington DC for a pro- Donald Trumpevent.
During Lamond’s trial, prosecutors said that the former police officer acted as a “double agent” for the Proud Boys.
Lamond’s defense said that their client’s communications with Tarrio were a part of his job.
But prosecutors showed that Lamond wrote of his affinity for the Proud Boys.
According to the indictment, Lamond had also advised Tarrio that he tried to convince another unit within the Washington DC police department that the Proud Boys were not racist.
“I told them you are made up a lot of Latinos and blacks so not a racist thing.
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After the January 6 attack, which aimed to keep Trump in office after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden, Lamond and Tarrio allegedly continued communicating.
Tarrio told Lamond he thought he “could have stopped this whole thing”, meaning the Capitol attack, in another purported message cited in the indictment.
A watchdog report by the US justice department inspector general’s office earlier in December found that 26 FBI informants were in Washington DC for election-related protests on January 6 – and 17 had either entered the Capitol or a restricted area around the building during the riot.
But it’s unclear if Lamond or Tarrio will be among the more than 1,500 defendants charged – and more than 1,100 convicted – that Trump has vowed to pardon on “day one” of his new term.
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