"Goon Squad" member Daniel Opdyke takes full responsibility for his "wrongful actions," attorney says

Daniel Opdyke, one of six former Mississippi officers sentenced today, “has admitted and taken full responsibility for what wrongful actions and inactions he was guilty of that night,” his attorney Jeff Reynolds told CNN after Wednesday's hearing.

During Opdyke’s federal sentencing hearing last month, it was revealed that he was the officer who turned over the text messages from the “Goon Squad” group chat, which was on the encrypted messaging service WhatsApp, to the federal government on April 12, 2023.

“The Feds themselves admitted in their downward departure motion filed in federal court that these texts played a vital role in the procurement of the guilty pleas of the other five officers,” Reynolds told CNN. “Without the texts and Daniel’s early cooperation, who knows where we would be right now? The Goon Squad might still be corruptly abusing people in Rankin County.