As revelations that a defense witness was also an FBI informant fueled the already controversial riot trial at the Capitol against members of the far-right Proud Boys group, prosecutors said Thursday that the informant was never told any information about the defendants. or their lawyers.

The FBI ended the relationship with the informant

this past

in January after learning the person had received a subpoena to testify, an agent said in an affidavit filed with the court.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly said there was no clear evidence of government misconduct and allowed the trial to proceed Friday, but he will also hear additional arguments about how deeply involved the informant was in the case.

The government only found out from the defense team that the informant had communicated with the defense and participated in prayer meetings with relatives of at least one of the Proud Boys on trial, prosecutors said. They called suggestions of government misconduct unfounded.

The revelation came Wednesday when attorney Carmen Hernandez said in court filings that the defense team had been told that afternoon by prosecutors that the witness they planned to go to court the next day was a government informant.

From our point of view, this is alarming, shocking, inconvenient, Hernandez, representing Proud Boy Zachary Rehl, at an emergency hearing on the case held after the judge canceled testimony for today.

Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the right-wing Proud Boys, went undercover for the police record

The informant was set to testify for former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and had met with his lawyers in preparation for testimony. The informant also interacted with the defense, including constantly beating unsolicited messages to one attorney and recommending potential witnesses to another.

I’ve lost faith in the process, said attorney Norman Pattis, who said the informant had more than two dozen phone calls with his client, including about legal issues.

It is the latest twist in the process, which is one of the most serious from the January 6, 2021 attack, which halted Congressional certification of President Biden’s victory, routed lawmakers and injured dozens of police officers.

Tarrio, Rehl and three other Proud Boys Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean and Dominic Pezzola are charged with seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors say was a plot to block the transfer of presidential power from Donald Trump to Biden after the 2020 election.

Tarrio, a Miami native, was national president of the far-right extremist group, whose members describe it as a politically incorrect men’s club for Western chauvinists. He and the other Proud Boys face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of seditious conspiracy.

Prosecutors said

The FBI was widely aware that the informant was “active in assisting defendants charged with crimes related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and their families, including by assisting with fundraising efforts and to protest their detention conditions,” prosecutors wrote.

But investigators made a conscious decision never to ask the informant about the person’s relationship to Tarrio or other defendants or attorneys involved in the case, they said.

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“That certain defendants or counsel chose to communicate with the [confidential human source] matters related to this prosecution are a decision made by them. However, the government has in no way orchestrated such allegedly voluntary interactions,” the prosecutors wrote.

Defense attorneys did not name the informant in their lawsuit, but said it is someone who served as an informant for the government from April 2021 to at least January 2023, though the original contact dated back to 2019.

The Justice Department considers the situation very serious and has shared documents to show that the informant was never asked for information about the defense of the trial, Denise Cheung, acting deputy chief of the criminal division, said at the hearing.

It is not the first time that the government has used informants, a problem in the case. Defense lawyers have repeatedly pressed for more information about informers of the far-right extremist group as they try to undermine the idea that the group had a plan to attack the capital on January 6.

FBI agent Nicole Miller testified last week that she was aware of two Proud Boys informants, including one who marched on the capitol on Jan. 6.

Law enforcement routinely uses informants in criminal investigations, but their methods and identities can be closely guarded secrets. Federal authorities have not released much information about their use of informants in investigating the role of the Proud Boys in the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Nordean, of Auburn, Washington, was a Proud Boys chapter leader. Biggs of Ormond Beach, Fla., self-described as a Proud Boys organizer. Rehl was president of the Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia. Pezzola was a Proud Boys member from Rochester, NY