Earlier this month, this trial against five Proud Boys was suspended after thousands of hidden messages between FBI agents were revealed that discussed doctoring a report about an informant, destroying evidence, and the FBI spying on communications between a Proud Boys defendant and his former defense attorney. The trial was allowed to resume as Judge Kelly accepted prosecutors claimed that the Proud Boys defendant surrendered his rights to attorney-client privileged by using a monitored communications system from jail.

Last week, the trial was suspended again after prosecutors revealed that a paid FBI informant, Jen Loh, whose real name is Jennylynn Salinas, cozied up to defendants and their attorneys for more than 20 months. She took part in prayer meetings with defendants' relatives and had contact with the defendants themselves while they were in jail. At least 10 and up to 15 FBI informants were embedded in the group months before and continuing after the events of January 6. Defense broke the standard pattern, and instead of attacking the informants, defense embraced them, issuing subpoenas to more than a half-dozen to appear as witnesses at the trial. But so far they have not managed to get any on the stand. Judge Kelly recently quashed a defense subpoena to compel testimony from Kenneth Lizardo, another Proud Boy who also turned out to be an FBI informant.