By Hudson Crozier

What’s happening: Tension erupted in the trial of five Proud Boys charged with seditious conspiracy for their alleged roles in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Dishonest conduct by the FBI and Department of Justice prosecutors has led to one defendant’s team asking for his case to be dismissed.

Lying on the stand: When an FBI agent submitted a spreadsheet of internal communications to the defense, lawyers found over 11,000 hidden rows of messages when the agent had stated under oath that there were only 25.

Spying on attorney-client emails: The hidden messages showed that the FBI accessed emails between a jailed defendant and his lawyer, using them to anticipate their courtroom strategy. The prosecution told the court this was legal because the inmate, like other inmates, knowingly used a government-monitored email system in the prison.

Destroying and hiding evidence: The messages showed that an FBI leader told an agent to “destroy” 338 pieces of evidence. In a report about an undercover informant, one agent told another to “edit out [the fact] that I was present” for unknown reasons. The FBI reportedly had at least eight informants embedded in the Proud Boys leading up to January 6.

Kangaroo court: Judge Timothy Kelly allowed the government to take back the spreadsheet and delete items that it claimed were “classified.” A former DOJ attorney himself, Kelly is one of many judges in January 6 cases granting unchecked power to federal prosecutors. He even kept one of the Proud Boys in prison for almost two years without a trial, delaying it 13 times at the government’s request while admitting he wasn’t concerned about whether the defendant’s “speedy trial rights are violated.”