A participant in the January 6 Capitol riot who was caught on video surveillance encouraging fellow rioters to steal police officers' firearms agreed to a secret plea deal with the federal government months ago, according to unsealed court records.
Samuel Lazar of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, was arrested in July 2021 and charged with federal offenses that included assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers, as well as obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder.
The new legal filing, unsealed by the Justice Department (DOJ) on Monday, revealed that on March 8 Lazar waived indictment and pleaded guilty to charges of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers as a felony and aiding and abetting as part of a plea deal that required government cooperation.
Lazar was sentenced to 30 months in prison, which he completed on September 13.
Following two attempts by the media-based Press Coalition to unseal Lazar's records, and with more attempts expected, both the DOJ and Lazar's legal counsel agreed to unseal the records. But they asked for 30 days to respond and to redact portions of documents that explicitly discuss Lazar's cooperation.
"The parties respectfully request the redacted documents be filed on the (then unsealed) docket," the filing states. "This is because public dissemination of the information the Defendant supplied could impair or interfere with ongoing investigations and because Defendant named individuals responsible for criminal conduct who may not have been charged."
Lazar's attorney, Hope Lefeber, told Newsweek that she and her client "respect the judgment of the court" and had no additional comment.
Newsweek reached out to the DOJ via email for comment.
During the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, Lazar was wearing tactical gear, protective goggles and camouflage face paint. He was caught on video approaching a line of police barricades on the western front of the building, where he aimed a canister of what appeared to be a chemical irritant in the direction of U.S. Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department officers.
"Let's get their guns!" Lazar shouted through a bullhorn on Capitol grounds, according to NBC News' Ryan Reilly.
As federal authorities tried to identify Lazar by examining video from the Capitol riot, he was reportedly seen at public events with former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and former Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano.
"They Maced us, those tyrannical pieces of s***, and we Maced them right the f*** back and now they're taking the building," Lazar also said on January 6 while dispensing the chemical irritant, according to video footage examined by the DOJ.
In September, the FBI released a list of seven fugitives still being sought by federal investigators after being indicted on charges relating to the January 6 riot. They included four individuals accused of assaulting law enforcement officers.
About 378 people have been sentenced and incarcerated for their roles in the Capitol assault. Of the approximately 1,140 protesters from all 50 states who have faced federal charges, more than half have pleaded guilty.
Enrique Tarrio, former chairman of the militant far-right group Proud Boys, was sentenced to 22 years in prison last month. It was the longest sentence handed down to a Capitol riot defendant and surpassed the 17 years his Proud Boys ally Joseph Biggs received.
