Thread by @JordanOnRecord

Today's witness in the Proud Boys trial is George Meza, aka Asher Meza, who says he's a former 3rd-degree Proud Boy and member of Enrique Tarrio's Vice City (Miami) chapter. Says he joined the PBs because they were "the only group I saw protecting Americans" in summer 2020.

Meza says the Proud Boys didn't discriminate on the basis of race, gender or political ideology... as long as it wasn't a left-leaning ideology.

Enrique Tarrio's attorney, Nayib Hassan, asks Meza if he acted as an unlicensed journalist (there are no journalism licenses, but moving on...). Meza says he filmed rallies basically, and saw nothing but support. He claims immigrants felt very comfortable around the Proud Boys.

Proud Boy George Meza talking about the "OK" hand symbol: Somebody used it in a non-racist way, then the media said it was racist so we started using it even more.

This is a bit of historical revisionism. Although the Proud Boys have been visible lately attacking drag events, early on the anti-immigrant ethos (read: anyone they didn't consider "Western") was much more prominent.

https://twitter.com/JordanOnRecord/status/1639267630040088578

Meza says the purpose of the Ministry of Self-Defense (MOSD) chat was to "thin out" the Proud Boys members who couldn't control themselves when they drank and only to have those who were "somewhat upright" represent the organization.

Hassan keeps describing Meza as an "independent journalist," but Meza makes clear the purpose of the videos he was making: to put on Proud Boys TV to show how other Americans felt about the Proud Boys. That's... PR.

Things have gone well on cross.

https://twitter.com/Brandi_Buchman/status/1639291112660647938

Meza also testifies on cross-examination that he was kicked out of the MOSD chat prior to Jan. 6 (seemingly for trying to moderate the discussion).

Meza says he policed the Proud Boys chats for anti-Semitic and racist comments. Meza says, under questioning from DOJ, that he took his concerns about the comments to Enrique Tarrio and Tarrio did nothing to stop them.

The court is breaking for lunch. Enrique Tarrio's attorneys are having Judge Kelly remind their witness/surprise CHS that they are still under subpoena. Sabino Jauregui says antifa(!) has been yelling at this person with bullhorns.

As concerned as the defense might be about this witness' identity being revealed, essentially every bit of information about them that's become public has come from them. Including their gender, which they repeatedly failed to conceal in court yesterday.

https://twitter.com/JordanOnRecord/status/1639304140999348225

AUSA Jason McCullough: "Mr. Meza, you believe the people who went inside that building are heroes, correct?"

George Meza: "Yes I do."

Meza doubles down, says even now, knowing what happened, he classifies the people who entered the building as heroes.

The jury has gone home for the day. After a break, next will be more discussions about the CHS. Judge Kelly is polling the room on whether the session should be closed. He points out our media consortium has filed a motion for it to remain open.

Sabino Jauregui says Enrique Tarrio's team is ready to go ahead and call the witness/CHS. They have looked at the government's documents and they don't see "any evidence of intrusion" in their camp.

Nordean's counsel, Nick Smith, is also fine with calling the witness. He says he thinks whatever issues they might have explored in an evidentiary hearing can be dealt with while the witness is on the stand.

Norm Pattis, for Joe Biggs, says he might need to talk to taint counsel but otherwise they're fine with going forward: "Based on what I know now we're ready to roll."

Carmen Hernandez, for Zachary Rehl, also seems fine with the witness now.

Roger Roots says he doesn't believe he, co-counsel Steven Metcalf or Dominic Pezzola have ever talked to the witness. A little odd, since yesterday Roots said he thought one or two names on their witness list had come from this person.

And so, after all that, everybody is now fine with calling the witness and nobody seems to think an evidentiary hearing is necessary.

Now that they've gotten over the surprise, the defense actually seems pretty OK with the witness being a CHS. Tarrio's attorneys appear to think that will bolster their case that no CHS ever reported a plan to the FBI.

This person was not actually a CHS on Jan. 6 and was, according to the DOJ, never tasked with collecting info about the Proud Boys or their defense team. But Tarrio's attorneys say they believe there may have been *some* kind of relationship with FBI going back to 2019.

DOJ says Jauregui did a thorough interview of the witness and "elicited up and down" that this person would never report about the Proud Boys. In fact, said they would "never report on our side." What did they report on? "Antifa and the border."