Secret messages were accidentally revealed and entered into court evidence. The snafu happened during the seditious conspiracy trial for members of the Proud Boys, who toured the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021. Federal prosecutors thought they tucked away all the classified stuff but it wasn’t as secure as they believed.
Hidden secret messages
Recently discovered messages, some of them classified, were hidden in plain sight until a sharp-eyed attorney for the defense spotted an inconsistency in some spreadsheet line numbers. This wasn’t a cloak and dagger cover-up, just an ordinary screw up. Even so, it was a huge mistake for federal prosecutors.
On Thursday, March 9, the feds were forced to admit they “inadvertently disclosed likely classified material.” Even worse for them, now that it’s out in the open, what it says hurts their case. They just created a total nightmare for the judge.
The trial was sidetracked for a whole day, so far. It may turn into a total derailment for what Politico calls “the most important trial to emerge from the January 6 attack on the Capitol.” The messages surfaced surprisingly while FBI Special Agent Nicole Miller was on the stand, under oath, on Wednesday.
Facts Matter – FBI special agent Nicole Miller “admitted fabricating evidence and following orders to destroy hundreds of items of evidence”" https://t.co/9UjlqBElYf
— M M (@FrMickM) March 9, 2023
As one of the lead investigators on the case, Miller had “already spent two days testifying about the Proud Boys’ January 6 activities.” From their march from the Washington Monument to their alleged “key role in the breaches that led to the broader attack.”
On the stand, Miller reviewed evidence disclosed by prosecutors in the form of “a set of internal FBI messages that Miller had sent and received from colleagues related to the case.” That’s totally routine. Instead of preparing a fresh document to be used as the exhibit, paralegals on the prosecution team cut a corner. “FBI headquarters sent Miller a spreadsheet.” It had all her emails “culled from a computer network classified at the ‘secret‘ level.”
She went through those and “filtered them to ensure only relevant, unclassified exchanges were included.” She sent her final list to prosecutors. Instead of removing the classified ones and transferring the rest, someone simply “hid” the rows with objectionable ones. Some may have been “relevant” but that’s not clear, yet. If they were, they should have been redacted and included. “Defense counsel stumbled upon them and began grilling Miller about them in front of jurors in the case.” That really rattled the witness.
The more important issue spawning defense motions was a spreadsheet provided to the defense of FBI Special Agent Nicole Miller's "Lync" messages to, among others, an FBI agent named T. Wang. Nick Smith's motion (not for mistrial) tees up some issues: https://t.co/gXIda55Vrx
/2— Roger Parloff (@rparloff) March 9, 2023
Concerned about a spill
The prosecution instantly yelled objection and asked for a time out. Overnight, the prosecution figured out what happened. In the morning, they sheepishly admitted “they were concerned there had been a ‘spill‘ of classified information in the ‘hidden‘ messages they accessed.”
That’s an appropriate word for an accidental leak. Their little spill is about to burst into flames and a toxic cloud as their case derails. That’s why on Thursday, “U.S. District Court Judge Tim Kelly paused the trial — already in its third month — to determine how to handle the error.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Ballantine is supervising the case for the Justice Department so she got pushed up in front of Judge Kelly to beg forgiveness. She “raised particular concerns about one of the messages sent to Miller by another agent who works on covert activity.” That one is really special.
by Mary Papenfuss • Key Proud Boys trial skids to halt after accidental leak of classified info to defense. The apparent leak of suspected classified info was tied to the testimony this week of FBI Special Agent Nicole Miller, a lead investigator in case, Politico rpted Thurs.🧐 pic.twitter.com/IhTS8owHeJ
— Sumner (@renmusb1) March 10, 2023
The undercover fed wasn’t working on this case but his email was “describing a supervisor’s order to ‘destroy 338 items of evidence.‘” Destruction of evidence is a huge no-no. “That could impact a classified equity” Ballantine admits. Impact it like an assault hammer between the eyes.
After letting both sides have their say, Judge Kelly “ordered defense attorneys to refrain from reviewing or disseminating the messages until the FBI was able to conduct a classification review.” They aren’t even allowed to glance in their general direction.
Prosecutors hope to have it done by end of day Thursday. If all goes well, the jury can be brought back in on Friday. Politico notes, it’s “the latest hiccup in a seditious conspiracy trial that has been marked by excruciating delays and extended legal disputes.“
