Brothers suing black Capitol officer in riots indicted

Two Montana brothers who were seen at the front of a mob chasing a lone black officer in the deadly Capitol Riot on January 6 are now facing multiple federal charges.

Joshua Calvin Hughes and Jerod Wade Hughes were accused of being among the first 10 rioters to break into the U.S. Capitol building and ambush Officer Eugene Goodman, who was hailed as a hero for luring the aggressive crowd away from the Senate, where former Vice President Mike Pence and other members of Congress certified election results.

The brothers were charged on Thursday with several offenses, including obstructing formal proceedings, obstructing or interfering with law enforcement during a civil disorder, entering the Capitol without permission and with the intention to disrupt official business and destroy property. They could not be reached immediately for comment.

Four days after the riot, the pair reported in person to the Helena, MT Police Department after seeing each other on the headlines and believing they were wanted by the FBI, complaint claims criminal.

After an FBI agent questioned them, the brothers said they wanted to surrender. They provided their contact details to the FBI and were allowed to return home.

Surveillance videos and footage on social media documented how the brothers were said to have been part of the first group of rioters who smashed windows and stormed the Capitol building at around 2:13 p.m.

Once inside, Jerod Hughes was filmed opening a door until the lock broke to let other rioters enter the Capitol, according to the complaint.

The brothers then reportedly walked to the front of a crowd advancing towards the Senate and joined Douglas Austin Jensen, who was facing Goodman, the only Capitol officer present at the time. Jensen was arrested and charged for his role in the riot.

Along with other rioters, the brothers refused to comply with Goodman’s repeated orders to leave the building and instead advanced towards him “in a threatening manner,” according to the complaint.

Prosecutors said Jensen was the main attacker, followed immediately by the Hughes brothers, who were seen chasing Goodman down a staircase in a viral video taken by HuffPost reporter Igor Bobic.

On the second floor, Goodman positioned himself between the rioters and the Senate chamber, which had not yet been evacuated.

He realized that he couldn’t stop the crowd from storming the Senate floor on his own, so he instigated the rioters to follow him away from the Senate and into an adjacent hallway, according to the complaint. .

Once there, several other officers from the Capitol joined him and attempted to suppress the members of the Mafia, who far outnumbered them. Unable to stop so many rioters at once, officers reported trying to defuse the situation but were greeted with “shouting and assaults,” including shouts “this is our home” and “we are. here for the corrupt government “.

Officers reported that after successfully defusing tensions with the crowd, the rioters, including Joshua and Jerod Hughes, left the atrium and entered the Senate floor, which had since been evacuated.

The brothers and other rioters were then seen sitting in senators’ chairs, opening their desks and examining sensitive documents, according to the complaint.

Officer Goodman, whose actions helped protect Pence and other members of Congress, was appointed Acting Deputy Deputy Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate and escorted Vice President Kamala Harris to the inauguration last week.

The brothers are among at least 164 people facing federal charges for their roles in the Jan.6 Capitol uprising, according to a database created by the George Washington University Extremism Program.