Jan. 6 Proud Boys Trial Paused Due to FBI Allegedly Altering Evidence

Dominic Pezzola was one of the defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol Breach. On Thursday, the trial was stopped due to confidential FBI messages that were revealed in court. The defense attorneys claim these messages show FBI agents discussing altering evidence.

Pezzola is on trial for conspiracy and obstruction. Charges related to Jan. 6 Capitol breach. He was taken into custody on January 15, 2021 and indicted that month. Pezzola was arrested in January 2021 and brought to trial.

“There are a couple of emails between FBI agents casually discussing altering a document and destroying hundreds of pieces of evidence. It’s very disturbing and right now we have more questions than answers,” Roger Roots is an attorney at John Pierce Law. He wrote to The Epoch Times. Roots confirmed that Timothy J. Kelly (a Trump appointee) was the Washington District Court Judge who halted proceedings on Thursday because of the leaked messages.

The Roots exchange was revealed during Wednesday’s testimony by Nicole Miller, an FBI special agent who was involved with the agency’s investigations into the Jan. 6 defendants.

Nick Smith, an attorney representing Proud Boys member Ethan Nordean, was cross-examined by Miller. He revealed classified FBI emails hidden in an Excel spreadsheet tab. Roots used this evidence to support Pezzola’s motion to dismiss.PDFRoots’s team filed the charges against Pezzola on Wednesday.

Pezzola’s group claimed in the motion that emails showed that the FBI monitored Nordean’s communication with his lawyer. This was in violation of the Sixth Amendment, which prohibits the invasion of the right to counsel.Matter of Fusco v. Moses).

“In the Nordean case, confidential attorneys-client trial/defense strategy and position was wrongfully obtained by the government, about which was overheard, shared, utilized, where potentially ‘338 items of evidence’ were ordered to be ‘destroyed,’ said Pezzola’s legal team in the motion to dismiss.

According to a separate filing by Nordean’s lawyers, Miller said in one correspondence that “[her] Nominated boss [her] 338 pieces of evidence [she has] to destroy”; Nordean’s lawyers allege that another email show an agent requesting Miller to “go into [a] CHS [informant] Report” that Miller “Just put [together] Edit that [the agent] He was present.”

The emails show Miller “Accused in fabricating evidence. Following orders to destroy hundreds,” Pezzola’s lawyers wrote in its motion to dismiss, and that the government obtained information that benefitted itself in the trial, causing substantial prejudice to each of the defendants, including Pezzola.

“Justice requires that this case be dismissed if it is to mean anything.” Pezzola’s lawyer said.

Roots is representing Pezzola on a pro bono basis. Legal non-profit National Constitutional Law Union (NCLU) is helping cover Roots’s expenses while he is in Washington, according to NCLU Executive Director Natalie Danelishen.

“I believe we need to take a longer time to understand some of Agent Miller’s emails.” Roots told The Epoch Times.

As of Thursday evening, the court has not issued an order responding to the motion to dismiss.

Alleged Brady Violations

In addition to their argument about the Sixth Amendment, Pezzola’s lawyers also argued in their motion to dismiss that newly surfaced footage of events of the Jan. 6 Capitol breach constitutes exculpatory evidence. The defendants’ lawyers say the government, by withholding that evidence, violated their client’s constitutional rights as defined in Brady v. Maryland, a 1963 case in which the Supreme Court held that prosecutors must make available exculpatory evidence to defense counsel.

The defendants’ motion comes two days after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) released more than 40,000 hours of Jan. 6 footage to Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, who then aired some of the footage on his show on Monday and Tuesday.

One tape aired Monday showed Capitol Police officers walking alongside Jacob Chansley, a Jan. 6 defendant serving a 41-month sentence after pleading guilty to an obstruction charge. Chansley was unarmed and walked past several Capitol police officers.

The aired footage “It is clearly exulpatory.” Pezzola’s lawyers said in the motion.

The FBI declined to comment and referred The Epoch Times to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for comment.

U.S. Attorney’s Office did not provide The Epoch Times with comment by press time.