Former DC police officer convicted over leaks to Proud Boys leader
Former Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Lt. Shane Lamond was convicted Monday of obstructing an investigation into the former Proud Boys national chair, Enrique Tarrio, just weeks before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson found Lamond guilty on one count of obstructing justice and three counts of making false statements to federal law enforcement officials, including when Lamond lied and said that he did not tip off Tarrio to the fact that law enforcement had a warrant out for his arrest. Tarrio was a prime suspect at the time in an investigation into the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner.
Lamond's sentencing date is set for April 3.
“As proven at trial, Lamond turned his job on its head — providing confidential information to a source, rather than getting information from him — lied about the conduct, and obstructed an investigation into the source,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves said in a statement Monday.
“The intelligence gathering role that Lamond was supposed to play is critical to keeping our community safe. His violation of the trust placed in him put our community more at risk and cannot be ignored,” Graves added.
Lamond was the supervisor of the Intelligence Branch of the MPD's Homeland Security Bureau at the time. He began maintaining regular communication with Tarrio in July 2019, as part of what prosecutors said were his job responsibilities.
Prosecutors said, however, that after the 2020 election, Lamond used Telegram to “surreptitiously provide information to Tarrio about law enforcement activity relating to Proud Boys’ activities in Washington, D.C.”
Lamond and Tarrio both testified at the seven-day bench trial. Lamond said he never provided Tarrio with sensitive police information, and Tarrio testified as a witness in Lamond’s defense, saying he never received any confidential information from Lamond, according to The Associated Press.
The judge, according to the AP, said that the trial evidence suggested that Lamond was not using Tarrio as a source after the banner burning in December 2020, but, she said, “It was the other way around.”
At trial, the judge described a pattern in the messages between the two men, saying, according to the AP, “Lamond and Tarrio talk, and Tarrio immediately disseminates what he learns.”
The judge said Tarrio was “flippant, grandiose and obnoxious” on the stand and described him as an “awful witness,” according to the AP. “He was one of the worst I’ve had the opportunity to sit next to during my tenure on the bench.”
Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.