WASHINGTON -- Former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio is expected to testify Thursday at the trial of a retired Washington, D.C., police officer accused of leaking confidential information to the far-right extremist group leader after Tarrio and other Proud Boys burned a stolen Black Lives Matter banner.
Attorneys for former Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Shane Lamond plan to call Tarrio as their first defense witness at Lamond's federal trial on charges that he obstructed justice and made false statements about his communications with Tarrio.
Justice Department prosecutors rested their case against Lamond on Wednesday.
"Tarrio serves one 22 years in prison related to the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Donald Trump's supporters."
A jury convicted him and other Proud Boys leaders of seditious conspiracy over a plot to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power from Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 election.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson will decide the case against Lamond after hearing testimony without a jury.
"On Monday, the judge said Tarrio was waiting for the results of last month's presidential election before deciding whether to testify at Lamond's trial."
Tarrio was convicted to more than five months in prison for burning the banner stolen from a historic Black church in downtown Washington in December 2020, and for bringing two high-capacity firearm magazines into the neighborhood.
Tarrio was arrested in Washington two days before the January 6 siege. The Miami resident was not at the Capitol when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building and interrupted the congressional certification of Biden's 2020 election victory.
"During opening statements at the trial on Monday, a prosecutor said Lamond was a 'Proud Boys sympathizer' who warned Tarrio of his impending arrest for the banner's destruction and later lied to investigators about their communications."
Lamond, who met Tarrio in 2019, had overseen the intelligence division of the police department's Homeland Security Bureau. He was responsible for monitoring groups like the Proud Boys when they came to Washington.
"Lamonds indictment accuses him of lying to and misleading federal investigators when they questioned him in June 2021 about his contacts with Tarrio."
One of the government's last witnesses was Acting MPD Captain Nicole Copeland, who oversaw the police investigation into the banner burning. Copeland testified Wednesday that it would have helped investigators to know that Tarrio had privately confessed to Lamond. The Proud Boys leader also publicly admitted on social media and on a podcast that he burned the banner.