DC police officer indicted for trying to help Proud Boys leader ahead of January 6th
Whenever the question comes up of how January 6th could have happened, it always leads to the question of what kind of inside help they had. We’re still waiting for some answers as to who within the government may have been criminally involved in helping the attackers get as far as they did; Jack Smith’s upcoming Trump 1/6 indictment should help bring some clarity. But for now we’re getting a revealing and disturbing look at the kind of help the attackers had in general.
For instance, according to NBC News, a grand jury just criminally indicted a Washington DC police officer for having tipped off Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio just ahead of January 6th that he was about to be arrested for stealing and burning a protester’s banner.
Why did it take this long for this officer to be indicted? After a very lengthy investigation, indictment, and trial, Tarrio was just convicted of seditious conspiracy two weeks ago. It’s not yet clear if this means that Tarrio is now cooperating and has given up this police officer, or if the investigation into Tarrio simply also happened to uncover the actions of this officer.
Either way, NBC says that Tarrio and this police officer communicated hundreds of times over a two year period leading up to January 6th. While there is no indication that the officer knew January 6th was coming or was involved at all, it’s nonetheless extremely disturbing that the leader of an anti-government white supremacist group could have such a close ally in the DC police department to begin with.
In any case, this police officer will spend years in prison if he’s convicted. When you obstruct justice by tipping someone off that they’re about to be arrested, it’s a serious criminal offense. Perhaps this officer will cut a deal and agree to give up any other DC police officers who are on the side of anti-government white supremacist groups.
