Federal prosecutors accidentally turned over documents that could have included classified information to members of the far-right Proud Boys who are on trial for seditious conspiracy, including more than 1,000 internal messages between FBI agents.
On Thursday, Judge Timothy Kelly gave the FBI more time to review the messages that were shared with defense attorneys to determine whether any are classified. The judge also instructed the attorneys for the five Proud Boys on trial not to review the messages further and to not share them with others.
The messages were mistakenly included in material provided to the defense teams and “may involve spill of classified information,” according to Jocelyn Ballantine, an assistant US attorney involved in managing the criminal case.
The issue came to light during the cross examination of FBI agent Nicole Miller on Wednesday, when attorney Nicholas Smith, who is representing Proud Boys member Ethan Nordean, revealed messages between FBI agents – including Miller – discussing the investigation into the group and their actions related to January 6, 2021.
The five members on trial for seditious conspiracy for their alleged roles in the US Capitol attack have pleaded not guilty.
Miller said that after receiving a large excel spreadsheet of messages from the FBI, she filtered out messages unrelated to the case or ones she did not send. She said she submitted her filtered messages to the government, which were then turned over to defense teams as part of routine evidence sharing.
The spreadsheet provided to defense attorneys, however, included a “hidden” cell containing more than 1,000 messages sent from other FBI agents.
Miller added that the messages are “on the secret side of our system” at the FBI but could not say whether specific messages were classified.
“What the…
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