SPILLING THE TEA

Classified Info Leak Derails Dramatic Proud Boys Trial

A sloppy mistake gave defense attorneys for the far-right hate group access to classified messages, sending the trial into a tailspin.

A sloppy leak of classified info to defense attorneys for the far-right hate group Proud Boys has derailed the high-profile Jan. 6 trial for at least a full day. The info leak comes during testimony from FBI Special Agent Nicole Miller, one of the lead investigators, who has already spent two days on the stand. Prosecutors had shared internal FBI messages with defense attorneys for her testimony, which Miller had filtered out to make sure they contained only relevant and unclassified messages. Except, the removed messages weren’t deleted from the document, but left as “hidden” rows on Excel. Defense attorneys found them and brought up the “hidden” messages during their testimony of Miller, throwing the trial into a tailspin. Further complicating the mess is a message sent to Miller that described a supervisor’s order to“destroy 338 items of evidence,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Ballantine, who’s supervising the case, said. Meanwhile, the Proud Boys’ lawyers are crying foul and saying many of the “hidden” messages were directly pertinent to the case. U.S. District Court Judge Tim Kelly paused the trial Thursday as the court decides how to move forward. Kelly ordered defense attorneys not to review the “hidden” messages going forward until the FBI’s able to review them, which could be completed as soon as the end of the day, but it’s not known when the trial will resume.