(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Blaze Media dropped a bombshell report last October that accused a Capitol Police Special Agent of giving false testimony at the Oath Keepers’ sedition trial in 2022.
At the time, the House Speakership was in flux, and Blaze said it didn’t have permission to release the surveillance footage that underpinned its report. On Monday, Blaze finally released the footage—and it indeed looks like Capitol Police Special Agent David Lazarus committed perjury in one of the biggest cases to stem from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill uprising.
During that trial, the Oath Keepers claimed that they prevented rambunctious pro-Trump protestors from getting into a conflict with Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn.
However, Dunn claimed that the Oath Keepers didn’t try to help him. To the contrary, the Oath Keepers were antagonistic towards Dunn, he said.
Special Agent Lazarus corroborated Dunn’s account of the interaction, telling a jury that he witnessed an “antagonistic” standoff between several Oath Keepers and Dunn. Lazarus and Dunn’s testimony helped convict the Oath Keepers of sedition, with leader Stewart Rhodes receiving 18 years imprisonment, member Kelly Meggs receiving 12 years, Jessica Watkins receiving nearly nine years, and Kenneth Harrelson receiving four years imprisonment.
But the footage released by Blaze shows that Lazarus and Dunn have both lied about their interactions—or lack thereof—with those defendants.
As Blaze has explained, Lazarus never witnessed the supposed confrontation between Dunn and the Oath Keepers.
“By analyzing the footage from multiple CCTV cameras and comparing the timelines associated with Officer Dunn’s actual interaction on camera with the Oath Keepers, it is clear that Lazarus did not arrive at the bottom of the staircase until three and a half minutes after the last of the Oath Keepers had left the area and were exiting the Capitol Building,” the media outlet said in October.
“Lazarus emerged from the top of the stairwell just after 3:05 p.m., after tactical units from the ATF and D.C. Metro Police had completely cleared the top of that staircase, the Speaker’s Lobby, and the speaker’s offices of all protesters.”
Blaze further noted that Lazarus’s testimony also contradicts Dunn’s forthcoming book, in which he wrote that he observed Lazarus in a conflict with Oath Keepers—and not the other way around.
Meanwhile, Dunn is now running for Congress.
Dunn announced his candidacy earlier this month on Twitter, stating that he’ll be running as a Democrat for Maryland’s 3rd District. He’s running to replace Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., who is not seeking reelection.
Along with lying about the Oath Keepers, Dunn has made numerous dubious claims about what happened on Jan. 6, including that protestors called him the N-word and shouted numerous other slurs at him. Dunn should have the body cam footage to prove his claims, but so far no footage has shown protestors attacking him or shouting racist slurs.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
