WASHINGTON — After being transferred from prison where he is serving out a 22-year sentence for seditious conspiracy, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, the former leader of extremist group the Proud Boys, took the witness stand Thursday in the trial of a former D.C. police officer accused of disclosing insider information to him and then lying about it to investigators.
Shane Lamond, once the head of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department’s intelligence division, is charged with obstruction of justice and making multiple false statements. Prosecutors say he tipped Tarrio off about a police probe into the Proud Boys and the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner on Dec. 12, 2020.
Tarrio, wearing a dark green prison-issued jumpsuit and black-rimmed glasses, denied ever having a friendship with Lamond and repeatedly denied ever receiving information in advance from police about a warrant for his arrest.
Instead, the former Proud Boys leader testified he was a “Twitter head,” constantly perusing social media. He claimed it was a social media post from the D.C. MPD about the banner burning that alerted him he could soon be arrested.
Tarrio admitted Thursday that on Dec. 15, just days after the incident, he spoke to Lamond. But he said he never confessed to Lamond directly that he burned the banner.
He wanted to do it himself and create a “circus,” in the process, he testified.
“I was dead set on getting arrested … that was my plan. I wanted to be arrested for burning the banner,” Tarrio testified.
He continued: “I’m a dedicated person … Here. I’ll be honest. I wanted to put up the circus tent. The only way to do that was to push the message out that I was about to be arrested for burning a BLM banner when so many American flags are being burned in D.C.”
People needed to see the arrest was “real,” Tarrio told Lamond’s defense lawyer Mark Schamel.
“And I was going to show what the Department of Justice was and I was dedicated to that cause with everything in me,” Tarrio said.
Prosecutors say Lamond told Tarrio about the probe into the banner burning roughly a week after it happened and disclosed that police were weighing whether it should be charged as a hate crime. Lamond allegedly told Tarrio he would check to see if criminal investigators had footage of him burning the banner and allegedly warned Tarrio that the FBI and U.S. Secret Service were “all spun up” after the Proud Boys leader went on InfoWars.
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When Tarrio was on trial for seditious conspiracy, prosecutors argued the arrest, facilitated by his relationship with Lamond, ultimately ended up giving the Proud Boys leader a tidy alibi for his whereabouts on Jan. 6, 2021.
When Tarrio’s cross examination started and it appeared prosecutors would ask him about Jan. 6, Tarrio refused.
He wouldn’t discuss that on the stand today, he said, threatening to invoke his Fifth Amendment right.
This prompted the judge to stop proceedings and call lawyers over for a private discussion at the bench.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.