MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on a new indictment by the Department of Justice of a former Washington DC Police Officer who conspired with the Proud Boys. Meiselas also discusses the links to this arrest with how Trump and Republicans want to abolish and defund the FBI and DOJ.
D.C. police officer charged with obstruction over contacts with Proud Boys leader Tarrio
Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Shane Lamond is facing obstruction of justice and false statement charges for allegedly concealing incriminating contacts with Tarrio.
A day after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio texted a contact in the Washington D.C. police department: “I think I could have stopped this whole thing.”
That admission from Tarrio is at the center of newly unsealed charges against Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Shane Lamond, who is facing obstruction of justice and false statement charges for allegedly concealing incriminating contacts with Tarrio from law enforcement — even in the days after the attack.
Prosecutors revealed that Lamond replied to Tarrio’s contention by alluding to podcaster Alex Jones, a Tarrio ally who was seen on Jan. 6 exhorting the crowd with a bullhorn.
“I don’t know, bro. You know it’s fucking bad when [Person 6] was the voice of reason and they wouldn’t listen to him,” Lamond said. “He got on the bullhorn and urged everyone to stop attacking the police and march around the US Capitol and they ignored him.”
Tarrio later replied: “Yeah but I have guys I can line up... he doesn’t.”
The exchange is the latest twist in the long-running investigation of the Proud Boys’ role in the Jan. 6 attack. Tarrio and three associates were convicted earlier this month of conspiring to forcibly derail the transfer of power from former President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden, capping a four-month trial in which prosecutors portrayed the Proud Boys as the most significant drivers of the violence and chaos on Jan. 6.
People loyal to then-President Donald Trump storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. | John Minchillo/AP Photo
Lamond, who was arrested Friday, was a ubiquitous presence in the trial, though he didn’t actually testify. Tarrio repeatedly referenced his contacts with Lamond to contend he had a positive working relationship with law enforcement and would never marshal a mob to attack them.
But prosecutors portrayed Tarrio and Lamond’s contacts in a more sinister light. After Tarrio burned a Black Lives Matter banner during unrest in Washington at a Dec. 12, 2020 pro-Trump rally, Lamond repeatedly updated Tarrio on the status of the investigation, including that an arrest warrant had been signed just days before Jan. 6.
Tarrio relayed those details to other members of Proud Boys leadership, warning them that his arrest was likely when he headed to D.C. ahead of Jan. 6. Lamond also repeatedly updated Tarrio on whether the charges against him might be elevated to a hate crime. In the charging documents Friday, prosecutors say Lamond never told colleagues about Tarrio’s admissions related to the flag burning.
Lamond’s four false statement charges all pertained to the federal investigation of the Proud Boys. Prosecutors say he repeatedly misled investigators about the frequency and manner of his contacts with Tarrio — which shifted toward encrypted text messages as Jan. 6 approached. According to records obtained by the Justice Department, Tarrio and Lamond exchanged 500 communications between July 19, 2019 — when the two first became associates — and January 2021.
In their post Jan. 6 exchanges, Tarrio also informed Lamond that a woman he knew from Maryland, identified only as “Person 7” in the indictment, might be of interest to people investigating the Capitol attack.
“After receiving Tarrio’s information about Person 7, Lamond used his law Enforcement contacts to obtain a list of individuals that the FBI had identified as subjects in the Federal Investigation. After receiving the list on Telegram, Lamond wrote to Tarrio, “Nope.
Not on our list.”
Prosecutors say Lamond never informed law enforcement that Tarrio had identified a potential Jan. 6 suspect.
The obstruction charge against Lamond — brought under the D.C. code rather than federal law — carries a 30-year maximum sentence. The federal false statement charges each carry a five-year maximum sentence.
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