A Washington, D.C., police lieutenant who headed the D.C. police intelligence division shared tips about impending police action with Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, an FBI agent testified in the trial of Tarrio and four other Proud Boys leaders who face seditious conspiracy charges, the Washington Post reports. Tarrio has argued that Shane Lamond, a 22-year-veteran of the D.C. police, is a key witness who could show there was no Proud Boys conspiracy to overthrow the government because the group shared its plans with a law enforcement officer. But the messages shown in court Wednesday reveal how much Lamond shared with Tarrio during the weeks before the Capitol attack.
On Nov. 7, 2020, when news networks declared that Joe Biden had won the 2020 election over Donald Trump, Lamond offered a tip about the right-wing social media site Parler. “Alerts are being sent out to law enforcement that Parler accounts of your people are talking about mobilizing and taking back the country and getting people spun up,” Lamond wrote. Later that day, Lamond added, “Just giving you a heads up. Let’s keep this between you and me.” Lamond said that he and Tarrio needed to talk on an encrypted application. A week after Lamond’s warning, as members of the Proud Boys gathered for a pro-Trump rally, Lamond warned that the group’s preferred gathering spot — a bar called Harry’s — was in danger of getting shut down by the city, according to the FBI witness, Peter Dubrowski. Lamond was suspended with pay from the D.C. police a year ago and is under federal investigation for his contacts with Tarrio; he has not been charged with a crime. In a statement Wednesday, Lamond’s attorney Mark E. Schamel said his client did nothing to aid Jan. 6 rioters and “was only communicating with these individuals because the mission required it.”
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