Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Shane Lamond's interactions with the former Proud Boys leader increased and became more secretive in 2020 as pressure to arrest him increased, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Ramond is accused of warning former Proud Boys national president Enrique Tarrio that police were investigating whether he had burned a stolen Black Lives Matter banner and later lied about the conversation. has been accused of. The trial began earlier this week, and Mr. Ramond pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors presented evidence that communications between Mr. Ramond and Mr. Tarrio occurred primarily via iMessage before December 12, 2020, the day the banner was burned. But Ramond then transferred the conversation to the encrypted chat service Telegram, where the two exchanged private and confidential messages.
Private messages on Telegram are encrypted after being sent to the server, while secret messages are encrypted before being sent, adding an extra layer of protection that prevents even Telegram itself from accessing these messages.
Some of Ramond and Talios' secret messages were set to be automatically destroyed upon receipt. FBI Special Agent Elizabeth Hadley, who testified about their communications, said 40 percent of the 209 secret telegram messages between the two men after Dec. 12 were never recovered.
Since the 2020 election, Mr. Ramond has repeatedly warned Mr. Tarrio that the right-wing extremist group the Proud Boys is “getting the attention” of law enforcement and “exciting people.” On November 7, 2020, when President Biden was declared the winner of the presidential election, Ramond proposed switching to encrypted messaging.
“I would like to warn you,” Mr. Ramond wrote Mr. Tarrio in a private Telegram chat on November 7, 2020. “Please keep this between me and you.”
“Always,” Tario replied.
Prosecutors also presented evidence that Ramond switched between iMessage and Telegram when chatting with Tarrio, suggesting he saved conversations that weren't shared with his boss in a more protected message format.
However, the defense noted that Ramond continuously provided law enforcement with updates regarding his communications with Tarrio throughout the period of the source relationship, from October 2019 to January 2021.
Lamond forwarded the information from Tarrio to several law enforcement officers from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, the U.S. Capitol Police, the U.S. Secret Service, and state police in Maryland and Virginia. One of Mr. Ramond's lawyers, Marc Schamel, insisted there was “no interruption” in communicating the information he had gathered.
“Except for the deleted messages,” Hadley interjected on cross-examination.
Some of the messages, which were set to self-destruct, contained details about the law enforcement investigation into Tarrio that led to his arrest on January 4, 2021.
Mr. Ramond told Mr. Tarrio that he had been asked to identify the Proud Boys leader, which likely means an arrest warrant was being prepared. He notified Ms. Tarrio when the arrest warrant was signed. Tarrio was already on the plane to Washington, D.C., expecting to be arrested, prosecutors said.
Tarrio is scheduled to take the stand in Ramond's defense on Wednesday. Mr. Lamond's attorney, Mr. Chamel, said the former Proud Boys national president would be the defense's first witness if the government rests the case.
Mr. Tarrio is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for inciting conspiracy in connection with the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The former Proud Boys leader was not at the Capitol that day due to travel restrictions imposed by his arrest days earlier.
The government said Mr. Ramond and Mr. Tarrio communicated more than 600 times on multiple platforms through their source relationships. During Mr. Tarrio's Jan. 6 trial, his lawyers sought to use their relationship as evidence that the group was not involved in criminal activity.
In opening statements at Ramond's trial on Monday, prosecutors accused the officer of acting as a “double agent” for far-right extremist groups and providing them with “real-time updates” on the investigation into Tarrio. did.
“This live information allowed the Proud Boys to stay one step ahead of law enforcement,” prosecutor Joshua Rothstein said, according to the Associated Press.
Lamond is charged with one count of obstruction of justice and three counts of making false statements. He faces up to 30 years in prison for the obstruction charge and up to five years for each false statement charge.
The police lieutenant was placed on administrative leave in February 2022.
Prosecutors are expected to adjourn the case Wednesday afternoon, at which point Tarrio is expected to take the stand.
