A Jan. 6 defendant’s team ultimately chose not to call a previously intended witness at trial Monday after the judge decided her history as an FBI informant could not be raised, according to multiple reports.
As former Proud Boys National Chairman Enrique Tarrio and members Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, Joseph Biggs and Dominic Pezzola continued their federal trial for allegedly conspiring to oppose the January 2021 transfer of presidential power, the government revealed Wednesday that a woman Tarrio’s lawyers wanted to call as a witness had been an official FBI confidential human source from April 2021 to January 2023. The woman, identified by The New York Times as Jen Loh, had reportedly given the FBI information beginning in fall 2019, but presiding Judge Timothy Kelly indicated Monday that her relationship with the bureau was irrelevant to the case, Lawfare’s Robert Parloff reported.
Tarrio’s attorney Sabino Jauregui subsequently said he would agree to free Loh from subpoena without calling her to testify Monday, according to Parloff. Loh told the FBI around Jan. 9 that she had been subpoenaed in the case and participated in a deposition, the DOJ admitted Thursday, and FBI San Antonio Special Agent Kristina Spindel said her source relationship with the bureau ended around Jan. 18.
During her time as an FBI source, Loh had communicated with one or more defense lawyers, participated in prayer meetings with one or more defendants’ families, and talked with one of the defendant’s family members about replacing one of the defense counsel, Rehl’s lawyer Carmen Hernandez said in a Wednesday motion. The motion called for the release of any FBI or DOJ reports, recordings, and memoranda about “reporting on and recordings of the defense team,” but the DOJ replied that no such records existed.
HAPPENING NOW: Judge Kelly rules that nothing about the Proud Boys' CHS in question is relevant to the ongoing trial. He says he would not admit it into evidence if the defense attempted to raise it.
"She wasn't tasked with reporting on Proud Boys."
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 27, 2023
via joemiller
