DEEP COVER

Proud Boys Witness Was Actually a Government Informant, Federal Prosecutors Reveal

Defense attorneys have demanded an emergency hearing over the disclosure.

A witness called to testify by the legal team defending members of the Proud Boys accused of seditious conspiracy was acting as a government informant, a defense lawyer wrote in a court filing Wednesday. Carmen Hernandez, an attorney for former Proud Boys chapter leader Zachary Rehl, said federal prosecutors told them their witness had worked as a “confidential human source” for the government the day before the unnamed witness was going to be called to the stand. Hernandez also demanded an emergency hearing and asked a judge to suspend the trial “until these issues have been considered and resolved.” The witness, who served as an informant for almost two years after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol in 2021, had taken part in “prayer meetings” with relatives of at least one of the defendants and had spoken with family members about “replacing one of the defense counsel,” Hernandez wrote.