Tag Archive for: proud boys

‘At Least 40’ Undercover Informants Were Doing Surveillance On Jan. 6, Defense Lawyer Says

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Law enforcement agencies had at least 40 undercover informants engaging in surveillance work among defendants on Jan. 6, defendant Dominic Pezzola’s lawyer Roger Roots said Wednesday.

A Proud Boys member, Pezzola is currently standing federal trial in Washington, D.C. with the group’s former national chairman Enrique Tarrio and members Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl for allegedly conspiring to oppose the Jan. 2021 transfer of presidential power and related charges. The government admitted Tuesday that eight FBI confidential human sources were embedded among the Proud Boys on Jan. 6, Roots reported in a Wednesday court filing, saying the Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) agency appears to have had some 19 informants active at the time.

At least 13 undercover plain-clothes DC Metro Police (MPD) agents worked among Jan. 6 defendants that day, Roots said. He reported that federal prosecutors revealed information involving twelve of the officers on Friday.

“Some of these undercover Metro officers marched with the Proud Boy march,” Roots said. “And some appear to have played roles of instigators, in that they are seen on body-worn videos chanting ‘Go! Go!,’ ‘Stop the Steal!,’ and ‘Whose house? Our house!’ on Jan. 6. Others generally followed demonstrators toward the Capitol.”

Dominic Pezzola by Daily Caller News Foundation on Scribd

“When added to the 8 FBI CHSs now acknowledged by the prosecutors, this means that there were at least 40 undercover informants or agents doing surveillance among defendants on January 6,” he concluded.

Roots asked the court to make the government “reveal all informants, undercover operatives and other confidential human sources relating to the events of January 6,” arguing that the HIS informants and their likely conduct could “almost certainly” help exonerate Pezzola. He said the defense would have been “much more aggressive” in the trial originally if they knew “the scope and scale” of Jan. 6 undercover government operations.

Roots had motioned Friday for permission to issue a subpoena for Jan. 6 rioter Ray Epps, who has been accused of being an FBI informant, though Epps and others have vehemently denied this. The attorney argued Epps “is being suspiciously protected from prosecution by the government,” and the Friday motion referenced Jan. 6 defendant William Pope‘s claims that undercover MPD officers were instigating the Jan. 6 crowd from within to storm the Capitol.

The government revealed to the defense on March 22 that a woman that Tarrio’s defense intended to call as a witness had been an FBI confidential human source from April 2021 to January 2023. Judge Timothy Kelly Kelly ruled March 27 that defense lawyers could not raise the woman’s FBI relationship in the trial, and Tarrio’s attorney Sabino Jauregui subsequently said he would not call her to testify, according to Lawfare’s Robert Parloff.

AUTHOR

TREVOR SCHAKOHL

Legal reporter.

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Justice Department Prosecutors Respond To Tucker Carlson’s Capitol Riot Footage

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Federal prosecutors responded to Fox News host and Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson’s newly released Capitol riot footage in a court filing Sunday.

Prosecutors rejected Carlson’s argument about the Justice Department (DOJ) withholding evidence from defendants and accused him of cherry-picking footage of “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley.

“In fact, the videos of Chansley’s movements throughout his time in the Capitol are highly inculpatory of Pezzola, Chansley, and other rioters captured on them. Pezzola’s argument seems to be that the snippets of Chansley’s movements that were televised by Carlson establish that there was no emergency necessitating the suspension of proceedings,” prosecutors argued in the court filing.

“The televised footage lacks the context of what occurred before and after the footage. Chansley entered the building as part of a violent crowd that gained access as a result of Pezzola’s destruction of a window and he traveled with Pezzola during the initial breach.”

The filing was connected to Proud Boys member Dominic Pezzola’s motion to dismiss the government’s seditious conspiracy case against him based on Carlson’s footage of Chansley. He argued the DOJ was monitoring his communications, destroyed evidence and fabricated evidence involving confidential human sources.

“The televised footage shows Chansley’s movements only from approximately 2:56 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Prior to that time, Chansley had, amongst other acts, breached a police line at 2:09 p.m. with the mob, entered the Capitol less than one minute behind Pezzola during the initial breach of the building, and faced off with members of the U.S. Capitol Police for more than thirty minutes in front of the Senate Chamber doors while elected officials, including the Vice President of the United States, were fleeing from the chamber,” prosecutors continued.

Carlson’s footage appeared to show Capitol Police officers escorting Chansley through the Capitol building. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger on Tuesday accused Carlson of airing selective footage and coming to “misleading conclusions.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, led the criticism of Carlson for airing the footage and his commentary about the Capitol riot. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy provided Carlson with the footage and defended his decision to do so Wednesday.

Chansley’s former defense attorney Albert Watkins told the Daily Caller on Thursday that he is calling for the Justice Department to publicly state it failed to provide Chansley with all of the footage during his prosecution. He told various outlets he did not receive the footage of his client aired by Carlson.

Prosecutors rejected accusations of withholding footage taken by the Capitol Police’s surveillance system (CCTV) in the filing. “First, all the footage of Jacob Chansley that aired on Tucker Carlson earlier this week has been produced to these defendants in discovery,” the prosecutors said.

“While discovery in this case is voluminous, the government has provided defense counsel with the necessary tools to readily identify relevant cameras within the CCTV to determine whether footage was produced or not. Accordingly, the volume of discovery does not excuse defense counsel from making reasonable efforts to ascertain whether an item has been produced before making representations about what was and was not produced, let alone before filing inaccurate and inflammatory allegations of discovery failures,” they added.

Chansley was sentenced in November to 41 months in prison followed by 36 months of supervised release for his role in the Capitol riot. His charges included disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building; violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

Pezzola’s charges include seditious conspiracy; assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers; obstruction of an official proceeding; destruction of government property and aiding and abetting; and robbery of personal property of the United States, according to a superseding indictment. He allegedly used a stolen riot shield to smash windows of the Capitol building and threatened to kill then-Vice President Mike Pence.

Pezzola is on trial with four other high-ranking members of the Proud Boys, an extremist group known for violent demonstrations.

“Our team’s review of available surveillance footage of Mr. Chansley is consistent with our reporting,” “Tucker Carlson Tonight” senior executive producer Justin Wells said in a statement to the Daily Caller.

AUTHOR

JAMES LYNCH

Reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.