A U.S. Capitol Police special agent who had been under suspicion for apparently false testimony he and another officer gave during the first Oath Keepers trial on January 6th was suddenly reassigned to the department on November 22nd. retired.
David Lazarus was most recently a member of Sen. Dick Durbin's (D-Ill.) Capitol Police escort. A retirement party was held on the same day Lazarus' retirement took effect, sources told Blaze News investigative reporter and columnist Steve Baker.
“Special Agent Lazarus was unsteady on his feet and his speech was slurred.”
A Blaze News investigation published in October 2023 shows that the events of Lazarus' testimony at the Oath Keepers trial a year ago show that the events he described could not have happened. Ta.
Lazarus claimed to have witnessed a “hostile” encounter between USCP officers harry dun January 6, 2021, a group of Oath Keepers in the Small House Rotunda.
Lazarus claimed to have witnessed “three or four” encounters with hostile Oath Keepers while walking in the area, but surveillance video from surveillance cameras reviewed extensively by Blaze News shows Lazarus is shown to have been in the Senate building when the encounter began, arriving several minutes later. The oath keepers departed.
Security video shows Dunn's actions, as well. not happening As he said under oath.
Lawyers for the Oath Keepers said Lazarus and Dunn's testimony cast serious doubt on the guilty verdicts handed down against the five defendants in a trial that ended on November 29, 2022. . Some lawyers have called for the verdict to be thrown out, citing apparently tainted testimony.
“Revealing Lazarus and Dunn's January 6 trial testimony shows just how far the Department of Justice will go to hide the truth from defendants and trial lawyers, not only in the Oath Keepers trial, but in hundreds of other trials. “It's absolutely essential to show the American people what happened,” Baker said. “Lazarus can retire, but he cannot hide.”
Blaze News also revealed that a Capitol Police internal affairs investigation was opened in 2016 regarding Lazarus regarding “USCP's policy regarding alcohol consumption on duty.”
The alleged violation occurred at a National Republican Campaign Committee event in Florida. Two members of the Capitol Police's High-Level Protection Division said they witnessed Lazarus “drinking what appeared to be an alcoholic beverage with members of Congress” at the bar.
Investigators “observed Special Agent Lazarus to be unsteady on his feet and slurred speech.”
Oath Keepers' attorneys were not informed of the OPR investigation or the allegation of drinking on duty. An investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility concluded that Lazarus “may have intentionally made false or misleading statements.”
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) said OPR and the Inspector General for the Dignitary Protection Division said the charges against Lazarus should be upheld, but they were rejected by the Capitol Police Legal Affairs Bureau.
In a letter to Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Munger in March, Loudermilk expressed concern that his on-duty drinking charges were overturned without adequate explanation. He also questioned the thoroughness of the 2023 OPR report, which was released after Blaze News reported on possible perjury by Lazarus.
“The lack of a robust investigation into allegations that Agent Lazarus may have lied under oath is unacceptable,” said House Administration Committee Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Loudermilk. said.
Mr. Baker predicted that Congressional investigators would continue to investigate Mr. Lazarus and Mr. Dunn.
“Although Mr. Lazarus and Mr. Dunn have both left the USCP, interest in their trial testimony is likely to continue into the next Congress, at least that's what we hear,” he said. “These two former officers are likely to be called before the commission to explain their conflicting accounts of what happened on January 6.”
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