Woman who went undercover in Trump inauguration protest to testify

Federal prosecutors plan to call a woman who was undercover in an anarchist “black bloc” protest during January 2017 protests against President Trump’s inauguration to testify in the next round of criminal trials for alleged riot participants, BuzzFeed News reports. 

Court papers filed this month by prosecutors say that the woman, who’s known by the alias “Julie McMahon,” will testify in the March 26 trial. It’s unclear who McMahon was working for while she was undercover.

The trial is the latest round of charges against defendants accused of Inauguration Day rioting, with five defendants facing charges related to property damage. 

McMahon, who previously spent years undercover in “an anarchist extremist group” in New York, will testify to the court on the “black bloc” tactic, a strategy that city police believe many of the 200 people arrested for rioting employed to avoid identification as they engaged in violence and destruction during the protests. 

{mosads}The prosecutions have been criticized for sweeping in journalists and protesters who weren’t involved in violence, and the first trial of inauguration day defendants ended in acquittals. 

Prosecutors announced in January that they would drop charges against over 100 people, leaving only 59 defendants. 

The Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia has noted that the remaining charges stem from the “unpermitted anti-capitalist march” that engaged in the“black bloc” tactic, where black-clad protesters wreaked havoc over a few blocks of downtown Washington, causing over $100,000 in property damage. 

“Ms. McMahon will further opine that, in her training and experience, the ‘black bloc’ tactic is only used when individuals within the group intend to engage in acts of violence and destruction, and that the ‘black bloc’ tactic is a known term within the anarchist movement,” prosecutors said in the court document. 

McMahon has reportedly been allowed previously to testify under an alias in criminal cases to protect her identity.