Indicted Proud Boys leaders should be 'nervous' after new 'game-changer' in federal court: legal expert

Reacting to a guilty plea from a senior Proud Boy leader Jeremy Bertino, 43, of Belmont, N.C. on Thursday on charges of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, CNN legal analyst Joh Miller agreed with a CNN host that the arrest of the leadership should be very nervous about their own upcoming trials.

As the Washington Post reported, Bertino has "agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department against [Enrique] Tarrio and four other Proud Boys leaders with ties to influential Donald Trump supporters Roger Stone and Alex Jones," whose trials are scheduled for December.

According to CNN's Miller, this a massive problem for the other indicted Proud Boys and the lawyers.

Asked how the guilty plea and how "it might impact the investigation," by "New Day" host Brianna Keilar, Miller explained, "In a big way."

"You have a trial coming up where he is one of the defendants but you also have the leader of the Proud Boys and others on trial," he continued. "This is a game changer for prosecutors. They have tapes, they have videos, they have social media communications. But the defense is going to be, it doesn't sound like what it means, it doesn't mean what it sounds like."

"When you have an insider, particularly one in leadership who says let me tell what you that conversation was about and let me tell you what happened in conversations that weren't captured, it really puts a dent in the defense's ability to try to reinterpret those," he elaborated.

"If you're the other Proud Boys or people on this, are you more nervous than yesterday?" co-host John Berman pressed.

"Yes, you are," Miller stated. "And it just creates a different challenge for the defense. Now the defense has to make a liar out of Bortino if they're going to dent his credibility."

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