Shane Lamond, the former leader of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department’s intelligence division, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for leaking information to Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, the leader of the far-right Proud Boys, ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson handed down the sentence on Friday morning. Tarrio, who had been pardoned by former President Donald Trump in January, was in the courthouse during the proceedings. Also present was Oath Keepers leader Elmer Stewart Rhodes, who, like Tarrio, was charged and convicted of seditious conspiracy. Rhodes had his sentence commuted by Trump.
Lamond was found guilty last year of obstruction of justice and lying to federal investigators at the FBI and Department of Justice. He waived his right to a jury trial.
Prosecutors initially sought a four-year sentence for Lamond.
The FBI and DOJ began investigating Lamond’s conduct in 2021 after a Black Lives Matter banner was burned at a historic Black church in Washington, D.C. in December 2020.
During Lamond’s trial, prosecutors revealed that he had tipped off Tarrio about the banner investigation and the impending arrest warrant. Prosecutors accused Lamond of informing Tarrio about police footage of the banner burning and alerting him to the FBI and Secret Service’s concerns about the Proud Boys’ activities in Washington.
Lamond failed to disclose his interactions with Tarrio to his colleagues at the police department who were investigating the banner incident. Prosecutors also presented evidence of text messages exchanged between Lamond and Tarrio, where Lamond provided information that could be seen as aiding Tarrio.
Tarrio denied making any confessions to Lamond, but evidence presented during the trial contradicted his testimony. The messages between the two men, including discussions about potential charges and investigations, raised concerns about the nature of their relationship.
A forensic review of their devices revealed that Lamond and Tarrio had switched to an encrypted messaging app after the 2020 election. The automatic deletion of messages and the secretive nature of their communication raised red flags for law enforcement.
FBI agents testified that Tarrio provided little valuable information to Lamond, indicating an imbalance in their relationship. Text messages on Tarrio’s device showed that he used his advance knowledge of the arrest warrant to plan his actions leading up to Jan. 6, 2021.
During the trial, Tarrio admitted to lying to his fellow Proud Boys about his knowledge of the warrant as a tactic to boost morale within the group. Lamond has denied any allegiance to the Proud Boys or acting as a “double agent.”
