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FBI agents recruited Proud Boys executive to provide them with information on antifa networks months before he was accused of storming the US Capitol along with other members of the extreme extremist group right, said a defense attorney.
Proud Boys’ thought leader and organizer Joseph Biggs agreed to provide the FBI with information on anti-fascist activists in Florida and elsewhere after an agent contacted him in late July 2020 and arranged a meeting in a restaurant, Biggs’ attorney, J. Daniel Hull, wrote in a court filing Monday.
The two officers who met Biggs wanted to know what he was “seeing on the ground,” Hull said. Over the next several weeks, Biggs answered an agent’s follow-up questions in a series of phone calls.
“They’ve talked a lot,” added Hull, who is asking a judge to keep Biggs out of jail pending trial.
The defense attorney’s claims support a widely held view among left-wing ideological opponents of the Proud Boys that law enforcement pampered them, tolerated their violence, and even protected them during their frequent brawls. street with anti-fascists. The Proud Boys even had law enforcement officers in their ranks, including a Connecticut police officer and a Louisiana sheriff’s deputy.
Biggs has also received “warning” phone calls from FBI agents and has spoken regularly with local and federal law enforcement officials in Portland, Oregon, about the rallies he was planning there in 2019 and 2020, according to Hull.
“These talks were aimed both at informing law enforcement about Proud Boy’s activities in Portland on a courtesy basis, but also at seeking advice on planned marches or demonstrations, that is, on where to go, where not to go, ”Hull wrote.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said there was no evidence the antifa was to blame for the January 6 violence. But that hasn’t stopped some on the right from making claims.
Antifa has been the Trump administration’s nasty scapegoat for much of the social unrest last year following the death of George Floyd. Trump and then Attorney General William Barr blamed anti-fa activists for some of the violence during protests against police killings of blacks across the United States
The FBI and the Department of Justice had launched a number of investigations into extremist groups around this time. They focused on whether people were breaking federal law by crossing state borders to commit violence or whether someone was paying to send antifa followers to commit violence, an official said. law enforcement at The Associated Press. The official was unable to publicly discuss the investigations and spoke to the PA on condition of anonymity.
FBI agents responded to police stations in several cities, including New York City, to question suspects arrested during the protests and focused on those who identified themselves as supporters of the movement, the official said.
But investigators have struggled to present cases, in part because there is no hierarchical structure at antifa; it is not a single organization but rather an umbrella term for far-left militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists during protests, according to the official.
The FBI declined to comment on why agents were meeting with Biggs or why the bureau was trying to solicit information about the antifa through the Proud Boys.
Biggs, 37, from Ormond Beach, Fla., Is not believed to be the Proud Boys’ first informant. Group chairman and leader Enrique Tarrio has previously worked undercover and cooperated with investigators after being charged with fraud in 2012, court documents show.
Eric Ward, executive director of the Portland-based Western States Center, which tracks hate groups, said it was “deeply concerning” to learn that Biggs had worked with the FBI, particularly because of the The order had “frequently maintained inappropriately close relations with distant countries.” the right groups. The Proud Boys actively encouraged violence and street brawls at rallies in Portland, he said, and Biggs “called for violence in the streets.”
“Law enforcement has no credible reason to work with someone like Biggs. It is high time to do a clear account of the institutional and professional relations of law enforcement with groups espousing political violence at home and abroad, ”Ward wrote in an email.
Biggs and three other Proud Boys leaders were indicted on March 10 for planning and carrying out a coordinated attack on the Capitol on January 6 to prevent Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory. At least 20 other members of the group have been indicted in federal court with riot-related offenses against around 350 people indicted so far in the deadly riot.
Proud Boys members describe themselves as a politically incorrect men’s club for “Western chauvinists.” Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, who founded the Proud Boys in 2016, sued the Southern Poverty Law Center for calling it a hate group. In response, the Legal Center said Proud Boys members often spread “outright bigotry” on the internet and posted photos of themselves on social media with prominent Holocaust deniers, white nationalists and “known neo-Nazis”.
DOJ prosecutors want to jail Biggs while he and the others await trial because he “presents a danger not only from his own potential violence, but also from the violence of others who support him without. no doubt”.
But Biggs’ attorney said the jail offer was based on speculative evidence at best.
“It is important to note that the FBI has been aware of his political commentary and role in planning events and counter-protests in Portland and other cities since at least July 2020 and has arguably benefited from this knowledge in its efforts to gather intelligence about Antifa in Florida and the Antifa networks operating across the United States, ”Hull wrote.
The revelations point to an earlier collaboration between law enforcement and a right-wing group in Portland during repeated clashes between left and right-wing protesters. The far-right group Patriot Prayer organized several rallies and marches in the liberal city, drawing hundreds of residents to oppose its message in dead ends that sometimes ended in violence.
In 2019, Portland opened an internal investigation after more than 11,500 text messages between Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson and Police Lt. Jeff Niiya were made public. Niiya was cleared into the investigation, but the episode led to training and changes in the way liaison officers communicate with groups before and during planned protests.
– The Associated Press
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