Double trouble. Can’t trust your brethren officer.

WASHINGTON — On the first day of his criminal trial, prosecutors told a federal judge that former D.C. Metropolitan Police Lieutenant Shane Lamond, who exchanged hundreds of text messages with Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, essentially worked as a “double agent” for the extremist group before Jan. 6 and when pressed about that contact, lied to investigators. 

Lamond, 48, was first indicted in 2023 on four counts including felony obstruction of justice as well as making false statements. His case is not about the attack on the Capitol. Rather, Lamond’s charges involve his alleged sharing of insider information about a police probe into the Proud Boys and the destruction of a Black Lives Matter banner stolen from a historic Black church on Dec. 12, 2020. 

Tarrio repeatedly took credit for the destruction of the banner online, once writing on the social media site Parler that he was “damn proud I did it.” He even briefly changed his Parler handle to “Fiery Tarrio.”

Tarrio was arrested on Jan. 4, 2021, for the banner burning charge and formally ordered out of Washington, D.C., within 24 hours. He pleaded guilty to destroying the banner as well as to a charge of possessing two high-capacity magazines found on him during his arrest. When Tarrio was on trial with fellow Proud Boys for seditious conspiracy and a number of other Jan. 6-related charges last year, federal prosecutors said Tarrio used his Jan. 4 arrest as a neatly timed alibi for his whereabouts on Jan. 6. (Tarrio was not at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but watching from a hotel room in Maryland and texting with fellow Proud Boys. He is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence.)

Prosecutors say Lamond told Tarrio about the probe into the banner roughly a week after it happened and disclosed that police were weighing whether it should be charged as a hate crime. Lamond even went so far as to tell Tarrio he would check to see if MPD criminal investigators had footage of Tarrio burning the banner, prosecutors said. In another text message that emerged at the Proud Boys seditious conspiracy trial, Lamond allegedly warned Tarrio that the FBI and U.S. Secret Service were “all spun up” after Tarrio went on the now-defunct InfoWars site and stated that Proud Boys would show up at public events pretending to be supporters of President Joe Biden.

Lamond, who has pleaded not guilty, insists he has no sympathies for the Proud Boys, but that while working as a leader for MPD’s intelligence division, his communications with Tarrio were a necessary part of his job monitoring and developing sources. 

Defense lawyer Mark Schamel claims Lamond’s closeness to Tarrio — the men shared at least 500 text messages, called each other “brother” on occasion and even went out for drinks — was an effort to keep tabs on the Proud Boys movements overall and to help prevent skirmishes between Proud Boys and other groups who might have shown up for rallies or other public events in D.C. at the same time.

But on Monday, U.S. Attorney Joshua Rothstein told U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson that isn’t quite what the record suggests.

Rothstein argued that Lamond — on the force for nearly 25 years when he was charged — used encrypted text channels with Tarrio to give him a “play-by-play” of police activity. 

Before Christmas 2020, prosecutors said, Lamond was shown a photo of Tarrio with other Proud Boys and asked if he could identify him. Within days, according to prosecutors, texts showed Lamond telling Tarrio about being asked to ID him. Yet more records allegedly show Lamond then warning Tarrio he would likely soon be arrested for the banner burning. 

MPD Lieutenant Ahsan Mufti, the government’s first witness in the trial, testified Monday that when a picture of Tarrio and fellow Proud Boys began circulating among investigators in December, Lamond told police that he had seen Tarrio before, but only “five or six times.”

Mufti, specifically tasked with getting Tarrio’s arrest warrant approved, said he thought that was the limit of their contact, and that Lamond had never disclosed that they had also shared hundreds of texts and calls. If he had known about that communication in December 2020, it could have made the case for Tarrio’s warrant stronger, Mufti said. 

Lamond did, however, provide Mufti with Tarrio’s phone number and helped to positively ID Tarrio’s voice on a podcast. This was helpful in getting the warrant, Mufti conceded. 

Nonetheless, Rothstein said, evidence at trial will show that Lamond’s leaking of sensitive police information was a steady drip and tied into his own affinity for the extremist group’s ideology.

Lamond’s attorneys argue prosecutors are cherry-picking his texts to make the case that their client was committing a crime when he was just trying to maximize his contact with Tarrio to gather intel about the Proud Boys.

During the Proud Boys’ seditious conspiracy trial, FBI agent Peter Dubrowski, who reviewed the texts between Lamond and Tarrio, testified that the messages did not strike him as chats typical or normal in a police-confidential source relationship. Dubrowski said it was abnormal that Lamond, for example, told Tarrio when and where Proud Boys were being locked up. 

In one text just 24 hours before the “Black Lives Matter” banner was burned, Lamond wrote to Tario: “Copy. Antifa should be staying up at BLM Plaza. Do you want me to let our uniformed officers know that or keep it to myself? I’ll be around all night in case anything kicks off.” 

Prosecutors asked Dubrowski last year if it was “typical for an officer to defer to a source” as Tarrio and his codefendants looked on. 

“No,” Dubrowski said in February 2023. 

More evidence of that allegedly atypical relationship was spelled out in Lamond’s indictment. In a text to Tarrio, Lamond fawned: “Of course I can’t say it officially, but personally I support you all and don’t want to see the group’s name and reputation dragged through the mud.” 

The false statement charges are specific to Lamond’s conduct in June 2021. During an interview with investigators, prosecutors say Lamond initially described his contact with Tarrio as “one-sided” and he denied ever telling Tarrio about the imminent arrest warrant for the flag burning. 

When Tarrio was on trial, he wished to call Lamond to testify on his behalf. Tarrio argued the police lieutenant’s testimony would prove to jurors that their relationship was never untoward and that he wouldn’t have risked a close relationship with Lamond if he was planning to attack the Capitol. 

But Lamond never testified for Tarrio, opting not to get involved and potentially incriminate himself while a probe into his own conduct was ongoing. 

At his own trial, which is expected to last less than two weeks, Lamond may call on Tarrio to testify. As CBS reported last week, Lamond’s defense attorney Mark Schamel said that when he first suggested calling Tarrio to the stand, prosecutors warned him that may open the door to Tarrio facing more charges tied to the flag burning. Schamel suggested this was a ploy to keep Tarrio out of the picture.