They're such a loyal and brave lot, the Proud Boys. Last week we one running from trouble at a New York protest–"I came here to help, not get the shit beat out of me!"–and this week we find out that one scheduled to be a defense witness for gang leader Enrique Tarrio has been a secret government informant for two years.
Carmen Hernandez, a lawyer for former Proud Boys chapter leader Zachary Rehl, asked a judge to schedule an immediate emergency hearing and suspend the trial "until these issues have been considered and resolved." Lawyers for the other four defendants joined in Hernandez's request. Hernandez said in court papers that the defense team was told by prosecutors on Wednesday afternoon that the witness they were planning to call to the stand on Thursday had been a government informant. … Hernandez didn't name the informant in her court filing, but she said it is somebody who has serving as a "confidential human source" for the federal government since April 2021 through at least January 2023. Prosecutors knew in December that the person was a potential trial witness but didn't inform defense lawyers until Wednesday that the witness has been a federal informant, she said.