Jan. 6 defendant secretly flips on Capitol rioters in win for prosecutors

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.