A former D.C. police lieutenant will face a federal trial Monday on charges that he improperly warned Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio of his pending arrest before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, then lied to investigators about their interactions.

Prosecutors say advance word from Shane Lamond, a 24-year department veteran, deepened anger among the far-right Proud Boys and fueled their instigation of the mob two days later at the Capitol. But Lamond, then head of the force’s intelligence unit, says he may call Tarrio as a defense witness, seeking to convince the judge their talks were within the normal bounds of how a police investigator handles a source.

Such a move would put Lamond in the awkward position of seeking exoneration through a man serving a 22-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy after being found guilty of plotting violence to stop Congress’s certification of the 2020 election, according to court filings.

Either way, Lamond’s bench trial before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson will spotlight D.C. police interactions with extremist groups in 2020 and 2021. That tumultuous summer and fall, episodes of street violence in Washington marred both racial justice demonstrations prompted by the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd in May and marches by Donald Trump supporters following the 2020 presidential election, culminating in the Capitol riot that led to at least five deaths, $3 million in damage and assaults on about 140 officers.

The inner workings of police intelligence gathering stirred controversy, with liberal groups accusing police of favoring right-leaning organizations and crossing the line between eliciting information and appearing to take sides. They pointed to officers who posed for photos with supporters of Trump and who stood back as counterdemonstrators vandalized Black Lives Matter signs or pressed arguments to physical conflict.

Tarrio’s attorneys said at his trial that Lamond would help him steer clear of protesters who disagreed with his group, though critics say location information helped the Proud Boys instigate fights, such as one in December 2020 in which four members were stabbed. Several high-ranking D.C. police officials are on prosecutors’ witness list, including Jeffery Carroll, the executive assistant police chief.

Lamond’s choice of a bench trial follows a calculation that he faces better odds from a judge than a D.C. jury, given the high conviction rate experienced by defendants charged with police misconduct since 2021 or with right-wing violence at the Capitol, legal experts said. Waiving his right to a jury may dim the spectacle of testimony by Tarrio or top lieutenants, instead focusing the trial on questions such as whether Lamond gave Tarrio sensitive information or acted appropriately in handling a confidential informant and what questions he believed investigators asked him.

Lamond defense lawyer Mark E. Schamel has said his client did nothing to aid Jan. 6 rioters. He said that Lamond’s work “was instrumental” to Tarrio’s arrest and that he “was only communicating with these individuals because the mission required it.” Lamond’s wife has posted on social media that her husband was being criticized for doing his job by obtaining intelligence and preventing clashes between the Proud Boys and other groups.

“We have a great deal of faith in the court, and we want to take any politics and emotion out of this case, because the facts are clear: Shane Lamond has neither made false statements nor obstructed justice,” Schamel said in a statement after seeking a bench trial last month. He declined to comment further.

D.C. police declined to comment on Lamond’s trial but said in a statement upon his indictment that city officials “understand this matter sparks a range of emotions, and believe the allegations of this member’s actions are not consistent of our values and our commitment to the community.” Then-Chief Robert J. Contee III said, “There are times when we have people who don’t live up to the oath. … And when we have that, we have to hold them accountable.”

Lamond retired after being placed on paid leave in early 2022 after an FBI probe began. The department said it cooperated with the federal investigation and would launch its own probe into the lieutenant’s conduct when the criminal proceedings are complete.

Lamond, 48, of Stafford, Va., has pleaded not guilty to one count of obstruction of justice and three counts of making false statements. He is accused of leaking information to Tarrio during the group’s planned protests in D.C., at a time when Lamond’s duties included monitoring extremist groups.

The obstruction charge carries a minimum three-year sentence and up to 30 years in prison upon conviction, although federal guidelines for a first offender are far lower. The false statement counts are each punishable by up to five years.

A 17-page indictment accuses Lamond of falsely denying that he tipped off Tarrio about the progress of an investigation and about his impending arrest on Jan. 4, 2021, for his part in burning a Black Lives Matter flag stolen from a historic African American church during a pro-Trump rally weeks earlier.

That information enraged Proud Boys members, prosecutors said at Tarrio’s trial, driving their planning for violence to keep Trump in power despite Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

“We could have a … riot” in Washington once Tarrio’s arrest became public, a Proud Boys cooperator wrote in an encrypted chat group set up by Tarrio at the time. “Just let it happen,” responded Jeremy Bertino, another cooperator.

“Maybe it’s the shot heard round the world and the normies will f--- up the cops,” continued Bertino, a potential government witness against Lamond who has pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors, according to evidence in Tarrio’s winter 2022-2023 trial.

Relying on digital evidence from Lamond and Tarrio’s cellphones and the potential testimony of as many as nine D.C. officers and officials, prosecutors accuse the lieutenant of making three specific false statements in an interview with two U.S. attorney’s office investigators on June 2, 2021 - claiming that his communications were mostly “one-sided” from the Proud Boys leader when Lamond knew he regularly passed on confidential law enforcement information; denying that he tipped off Tarrio about the flag-burning investigation; and denying that he informed Tarrio of his arrest warrant.

According to charging papers, beginning in July 2019 and continuing to at least January 2021, Lamond and Tarrio were in regular contact regarding planned Proud Boys actions in Washington, and Lamond began using the encrypted messaging app Telegram to provide law enforcement information to Tarrio as early as July 2020.

The pair exchanged at least 500 communications via cloud-based services, but the pace and secrecy of the messages spiked after the election, including at least 101 of 145 Telegram secret chat messages between Dec. 18, 2020, and Jan. 4, 2021, that were destroyed by measures including auto-delete timers, charging papers said. Other messages were recovered from the men’s phones.

The indictment states that in key moments, Lamond appeared to commiserate and trade information with Tarrio.

“Hey brother, sad, sad news today. You all planning anything?” Lamond asked on Nov. 7, 2021, the day news media declared Joe Biden the election winner. “Yep,” Tarrio replied, according to the indictment.

“Need to switch to encrypted. Alerts are being sent out to LE [law enforcement] that [Parler social networking] accounts belonging to your people are talking about mobilizing and ‘taking back the country,’” Lamond added later that day, according to charging papers. “Getting people spun up. Just giving you a heads up.”

On Dec. 18, one day before Trump announced plans for a “wild” protest when Congress met to certify the election, Lamond revealed information about the investigation into the burning of the Black Lives Matter flag after a Dec. 12 Trump rally in Washington, the indictment said. Tarrio later pleaded guilty to destruction of property along with attempted possession of a high-capacity ammunition magazine upon his return to Washington three weeks later.

Lamond volunteered to check with the criminal investigators “to see if they have you on video,” prosecutors said. He then cautioned that the FBI and Secret Service were “all spun up” about Tarrio’s statement that Proud Boys would disguise themselves as Biden supporters on Jan. 6, charging papers said.

That Christmas Day, Lamond allegedly told Tarrio he believed an arrest might be imminent because he had been asked to identify Tarrio in a photograph on Parler, prosecutors said.

On the evening of Dec. 30, Lamond and Tarrio had a call lasting nearly 15 minutes, during which Tarrio sent out a bulletin to Proud Boys leaders calling for an “Emergency voice chat,” according to evidence at Tarrio’s trial. Responses from other Proud Boys indicate that Tarrio had shared with them that he would be arrested soon.

On Jan. 4, 2021, as Tarrio flew to D.C. from Miami, Lamond sent him notice that a warrant had been signed, prosecutors said. After that warning from Lamond, as Tarrio was pulled over by D.C. police when he entered Washington from the airport, Proud Boys leaders repeated in Telegram and elsewhere, “Nuke chats.”

Tarrio spoke for just over two minutes by phone with co-defendant Joe Biggs, who was also convicted of seditious conspiracy, prosecutors said. After the call, Tarrio texted: “Whatever happens … make it a spectacle.”

Lamond’s defense says that Tarrio learned of his arrest from others and that key government evidence against the lieutenant was circumstantial or lacking information about the content of calls. It is not uncommon for authorities to negotiate a surrender with criminal suspects who have been charged in a warrant, though those instances are typically coordinated among police, prosecutors and defense attorneys.

Law enforcement agencies typically keep in contact with members of extremist groups, sometimes going undercover to learn about violent or subversive plots but also openly to plan logistics around demonstrations, experts said. Such interactions at times can appear friendly and extract valuable information but need to be closely supervised and documented and not divulge information about internal policies or operations, police experts said.

Tarrio’s defense argued during his trial that his communications with Lamond showed that the Proud Boys did not conspire to commit violence and that the group had shared its plans with law enforcement. They sought Lamond’s testimony but said the lieutenant had invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Lamond was arrested 15 days after Tarrio’s conviction.

Tarrio’s lawyers have appealed his conviction and said that with Trump’s election and promises to pardon Jan. 6 defendants, they “will explore every possible avenue to seek his release from custody.”

previous coverage

• DC officer accused of warning Proud Boys leader seeks trial by judge, not jury