A portion of the ongoing Proud Boys trial hearing on Thursday was accidentally leaked to the public after the judge and lawyers believed they were in a sealed session.
On Thursday, journalist Roger Parloff detailed a series of events that occurred during the trial and said that it initially appeared that they were having a “sealed session.” However, Parloff later notified a member of the tech hotline who turned media screens on for journalists.
“…The judge then came out and said, ‘So we’re in sealed session, right?’ The session then proceeded for about 15-20 minutes. After that the court deputy advised the court that the media room was able to hear what was going on. They then closed the session. …,” Parloff wrote in his thread.
… The defense attys, accompanied by a prosecutor, then came to the media room to, basically, beg us not to use the material until after the case is over. (The prosecutor did not speak, since that might create 1st amendment issues.) …
/8— Roger Parloff (@rparloff) April 13, 2023
CNN also reported on Thursday that District Judge Timothy Kelly was informed by a court staff member that the hearing was being streamed to the media room.
“There is nothing we can do at this point. Let’s have them shut it off now,” Judge Kelly said, according to CNN, which also reportedduring the portion of the hearing that was streamed to members of the media included details about jurors on the trial being followed outside of court. Three jurors informed the judge that they encountered an individual outside of the courthouse who mentioned the trial. The jurors then realized that the same individual was inside the courthouse gallery several days later, CNN reported.
“The individual did not say that he knew they were jurors,” Kelly said according to CNN.
The incident on Thursday comes amid the ongoing Proud Boys trial where members such as Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, Dominic Pezzola and Ethan Nordean face several charges including seditious conspiracy following the January 6 riots at the Capitol.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty
This is not the first time this trial has encountered an issue over the past several months.
Last month, the trial was abruptly halted after Rehl’s attorney, Carmen Hernandez learned that a witness who was expected to testify was previously a government informant. “This instant motion is based on a disclosure made to defense counsel today, March 22, 2023, at the end of the Court’s proceedings wherein the government stated that one of the witnesses (who was disclosed to the United States and the Court as directed by the Court in December 2022) who was scheduled to appear in the defense case the following day has been serving as a CHS since April, 2021 through at least, January 2023,” Hernandez said in a motion.
In response, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., filed a motion saying that the informant never discussed defendant Tarrio or any other Proud Boys members involved in the trial.
Shortly after the motions filed last month, Roger Roots, the attorney representing Pezzola, filed another motion urging the government to unveil the identities of the informants and confidential human sources (CHS) involved in the case.
“The federal prosecutors in this case are refusing to disclose information regarding these non-FBI informants. The existence, and likely conduct of these CHSs is almost certainly exculpatory for Pezzola,” the motion said.
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington D.C. declined to make any comments after Newsweek reached out. Newsweek also reached out to Nordean’s attorney via email for comment.
