Alleged false testimony by Capitol Police ‘raises profound concerns about the integrity of the entire trial,’ defense attorney Brad Geyer said.
An allegation that a key U.S. Capitol Police witness in the first Oath Keepers Jan. 6 trial gave false testimony on the stand warrants an immediate review of the case “compelling a reversal of the convictions,” a defense attorney told The Epoch Times.
Attorney Brad Geyer, who represented Oath Keepers member Kenneth Harrelson in the more than two-month seditious-conspiracy trial in the fall of 2022, said the revelation published on Oct. 4 “raises profound concerns about the integrity of the entire trial proceedings.”
Journalist Steve Baker published a story at Blaze Media that said Capitol Police CCTV security video shows that Capitol Police Special Agent David Lazarus could not have witnessed an alleged confrontation between a group of Oath Keepers and Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn because Mr. Lazarus was nowhere near the scene at the time.
In January 2021, Mr. Lazarus was a member of the dignitary protection detail for then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). On the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, he said he assisted with the evacuation of senators and staff from the Senate Chamber through the tunnels and subways leading to nearby office buildings.
The alleged confrontation was key evidence in the trial because it contradicted accounts from Oath Keepers that they stood in front of Officer Dunn as a buffer to protect him from an angry crowd of protesters and prevent what they feared could become a shooting.
An account of the event from Oath Keepers member Graydon Young obtained by The Epoch Times said a team led by Florida Oath Keepers leader Kelly Meggs got in between a shouting match between an “angry mob” and Officer Dunn.
“He appeared distressed and had his finger on the trigger,” Mr. Young wrote in the document later seized by the FBI. “Our guys de-escalated by firmly telling both sides to calm down. Another police officer was advised to give ground. That police officer acknowledged the situation was a ‘broken arrow.'”
