Thread by @joshgerstein

ON STAND NOW at Proud Boys trial as defense witness: S. Fla. rabbi Former Proud Boy George Meza. Meza on his exit: 'We in some way turned on each other and I was voted out of the club.' But generally presenting a flattering view of Proud Boys & their ideology

Meza says Proud Boys rules barred those 'currently identified' as white nationalists. They're kicked out 'or they're supposed to be,' he says

More Meza: 'The average minority, the average foreigner felt very comfortable around the proud boys because we put our lives in danger to protect them.'

Meza, asked why White nationalists were not kicked out of Proud Boys: 'I don't know.'

Meza talks about weeding out PB members who couldn't control their drinking or their behavior and 'only have those who are somewhat upright.' (Yes, that's a direct quote.)

Meza under cross-exam denies that he & #ProudBoys sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. 'We were going to abide by whatever was decided upon,' Meza says repeatedly. He contends there was 'tampering' w/ ballots, but is 'agnostic' on whether it cost Trump win

Meza now seems to concede Proud Boys were sometimes proactive in going after perceived Antifa members. 'The reason we were in some way chasing them was the cops were blocking our access. We were in some way trying to go around the streets and confront Antifa….'

Meza: 'They were the ones with the weapons.' Says DC police were trying to keep the groups apart.

Random quote from Meza: 'Some kid trying to watch a smurf cartoon is not going to stumble across a Proud Boys meeting on YouTube.' Calls a lot of online chats about violence 'locker-room talk,' insists 'as a rule' they don't target others.

About mention of kicking ass: 'I would consider that hyperbole...It's just hyperbole...you have a bunch of tough guys feeling like heroes...You're going to have a lot of poetic, symbolic' statements

Meza says he still doesn't know why he was kicked out of #proudboys leadership chat. Prosecutor McCullough suggests it was because Meza repeatedly flagged anti-semitism in the chats.

Judge now warning the CHS who is on-deck to testify that she's under subpoena and cannot leave. Tarrio lawyer says she's receiving death threats. But woman will be held over until Monday to testify. Seems possible she could testify at a hearing later today away from jury

Judge Kelly to the CHS, still not publicly named in court: 'That’s’ a legal obligation to be present to testify.' She says she understands. McCullough seems to be saying they will arrange security for the witness, but is vague. Now some blaming back and forth.

Judge Kelly has dismissed jury for day. Now back to CHS "Jen Loh." Judge: 'If you all think there’s a potential factual basis for some sort of 6th Amendment violation, OK...Exploring that topic is not something we will do in front of the jury.'

Loh quoted publicly here now: nytimes.com/2023/03/24/us/… Kelly doesn't seem too worked up by recent disclosure by govt to defense about her being a CHS.

Kelly says the government has 'equities' too in her being a CHS. Judge: 'The fact that they [the govt] would wait to disclose it until they knew the person was being called doesn’t strike me as improper.' But he's trying to mitigate whatever problems timing caused for defense

Apparently there's an audio recording of Loh that highlights what defense says is a factual discrepancy between government position and something Loh is saying. We haven't heard it and the judge hasn't yet either.

Prosecutor McCullough says Loh told defense she didn't do any reporting to FBI on Proud Boys which she called 'our side.' Loh said she was tasked with providing info about 'Antifa and the border,' he said.

McCullough asks judge to limit defense questioning of Loh: 'I don't want insinuation that the government's done anything improper.'