Former Proud Boys nationwide chair Enrique Tarrio delivered combative and at occasions contradictory testimony Thursday as a star witness within the protection of a retired police officer accused of leaking regulation enforcement intel to the right-wing extremist group chief.
Tarrio flatly refuted key components of the Justice Division’s case towards Metropolitan Police Division (MPD) Lt. Shane Lamond, together with that the officer warned him about an arrest warrant for burning a stolen Black Lives Matter banner and later tipped him off to his imminent arrest.
However he refused to acknowledge messages suggesting in any other case on cross-examination, as a substitute looking for to fluster the prosecutor and undermine proof by suggesting his sedition trial proved prosecutors can’t be trusted to current correct data.
Seconds into his cross-examination, Tarrio declined to reply any questions concerning the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol assault that boosted his notoriety.
“It’s just not happening,” mentioned Tarrio, who’s serving a 22-year jail time period for seditious conspiracy after plotting to halt the peaceable switch of energy from then-President Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 election.
U.S. District Choose Amy Berman Jackson in a federal courtroom in Washington threatened to strike his complete testimony or maintain him in contempt, reminding the right-wing extremist group chief that he waived his Fifth Modification safety towards self-incrimination when he determined to take the stand.
Tarrio mentioned he’d be “OK” with these penalties, to proceed as he wished. The choose mentioned she wasn’t.
“We will agree to disagree,” Tarrio replied.
Tarrio wore a inexperienced inmate’s jumpsuit and black, thick-rimmed glasses, scanning the gallery jam-packed with reporters, regulation enforcement and members of the general public as he entered the courtroom and through his testimony.
The ex-Proud Boys chief didn’t testify throughout his Jan. 6 trial, although a number of co-defendants did. Jackson, the choose, mentioned a earlier delay in Lamond’s trial was the results of Tarrio wishing to attend for the end result of November’s presidential election earlier than deciding whether or not to testify.
Trump, who’s now president-elect, has vowed to pardon Jan. 6 rioters — and floated contemplating a pardon for Tarrio.
Throughout his testimony, Tarrio mentioned his communication with Lamond started in summer time 2019 with the target of protecting fellow Proud Boys and Trump supporters secure at occasions by making a “buffer zone” between them and protestors.
Lamond was neither a Proud Boy nor a pal, Tarrio mentioned, although he stopped wanting denying that the officer supported the group.
“I can’t tell you what Shane was or wasn’t,” he mentioned. “He wasn’t a Proud Boy.”
Tarrio denied confessing to Lamond, pointing prosecutors to podcast and social media confessions he mentioned stood alone. The federal government alleges Tarrio confessed to Lamond and that the officer withheld that data from his superiors.
He defined away the contradictory messages he despatched to numerous individuals as a “marketing ploy” to encourage contacts with massive followings to blast the knowledge, or as testing out messaging amongst different Proud Boys.
Tarrio additionally roundly resisted prosecutors’ principle that Lamond knowledgeable Tarrio of his Jan. 4, 2021, arrest. That day, Lamond set his Telegram chat with Tarrio to self-destruct after 10 seconds; quickly after, Tarrio informed a number of contacts that the warrant for his arrest was signed.
Nevertheless, Tarrio did admit to a number of particulars prosecutors say are damaging to Lamond’s protection. Tarrio initially mentioned that Lamond was not his “source” at MPD, however later agreed that he was a “contact” on the police division — phrases Tarrio used interchangeably in his messages.
Prosecutors additionally performed a video displaying Tarrio assembly in a parking storage with members of different right-wing teams, together with Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes. Within the video, Tarrio says he turned conscious his arrest warrant had been signed “in the air. … They texted me from the air.”
Tarrio admitted the video confirmed him saying that, however insisted the one that texted him was not Lamond and that he didn’t really know then that the warrant had been signed. He informed protection legal professional Mark Schamel that he turned suspicious after departing the aircraft however wasn’t certain he’d be arrested till unmarked police automobiles started following his ride-hail into Washington, D.C.
Assistant U.S. Legal professional Rebecca Ross questioned why the choose, who alone will resolve Lamond’s destiny, ought to imagine that each one of Tarrio’s messages have been lies, however he was telling the reality Thursday in the identical court docket the place he was convicted of sedition and different critical felonies.
“Well, I wasn’t convicted of perjury,” Tarrio retorted.
