DEA agent arrested for January 6 riot on Capitol Hill by Trump supporters

A US Drug Enforcement Administration agent has been arrested for allegedly participating in the January 6 riot at the United States Capitol by supporters of then President Donald Trump.

The agent, Mark Sami Ibrahim, is said to have shown his badge and a handgun issued by the DEA during the riot while posing for photos with the items. Photos of him doing this are included in a court file.

Authorities said he entered the restricted area around the Capitol and also climbed the Peace Memorial at the foot of Capitol Hill.

And he participated “in a WhatsApp group chat with at least five other law enforcement officers” during the invasion of Capitol grounds, according to the court record.

This file also indicates that after Trump supporter Ashli ​​Babbitt was shot and killed by a police officer inside the Capitol, as she crawled through a window leading to the House of Representatives bedroom , she was taken outside on a stretcher and passed “a few steps from Ibrahim.”

A friend of Ibrahim who stood with him filmed Babbitt as “she walked past them” in an ambulance, “the file said.

“Ibrahim then posted this video on the WhatsApp group chat,” the court file said.

Ibrahim, who lives in Orange County, Calif., Was a DEA probationary employee at the time of the riot, which began after Trump urged attendees at a rally outside the White House to walk to the Capitol Hill and to fight Congressional confirmation of Joe Biden’s election as President that day.

He had notified his planned resignation weeks before the invasion of Capitol Hill by a horde of Trump supporters, according to the court record.

“He was not on duty for the DEA and had no role as a law enforcement agent on the Capitol grounds”, indicates this file. This document also stated that Ibrahim was on personal leave from the DEA when he visited Washington, DC.

A friend of Ibrahim told FBI agents he went to the protest “to promote himself,” while considering launching a podcast and cigar brand, according to the filing.

Cell phone data shows Ibrahim arrived at the Capitol grounds around 1:06 p.m. on January 6 – about 13 minutes after a crowd started breaking through the fences barricading the grounds – and that three minutes later he “Posed for several photographs in which he flashed and showed his DEA badge and gun.”

“Ibrahim’s friend took these photos at Ibrahim’s request,” the court document reads.

A video posted on the Internet shows Ibrahim at around 1:45 p.m. that day carrying a flag pole with a flag emblazoned with a blue five-pointed star and the words “FREEDOM OR DEATH,” the court record reads. At the time, Ibrahim was about 400 feet inside the first fence that barricaded the Capitol.

At around 2:10 p.m. Ibrahim took a video of himself, which he then posted on the WhatsApp group chat. [with other law enforcement officers], standing in the crowd on a patch of grass above the United States Capitol Visitor Center between the Capitol’s east portico and the Senate, “the record reads.

“Question mark, are you carrying your service weapon and badge / creds?” A member of the WhatsApp group chat asked Ibrahim, referring to his DEA credentials, the record noted. “I need to know this brand.

Ibrahim was subsequently investigated by the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Justice and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

As part of that investigation, he was questioned by an agent from the OIG office, in the presence of his lawyer, by video conference on March 15, according to the court file.

After being advised not to lie to the officer, which would constitute a federal crime, Ibrahim admitted to being on Capitol Hill on January 6 and admitted that he was wearing his DEA badge and credentials, as well as his handgun issued by the agency.

“Ibrahim has denied showing or exhibiting his DEA badge and firearm on Capitol Hill,” the file says. “Specifically, Ibrahim said, ‘I had my credits. I had my gun and my badge with me. . . But never exhibited. . . Not that I know of. ”

“During his interview, Ibrahim admitted to having heard the tear gas canisters explode – he said to have heard the detonations”, indicates the file.

Ibrahim also told the BIG agent that he visited Capitol Hill that day with a friend and relative, at the request of that friend, according to the file.

Ibrahim claimed that his friend “had been invited by the FBI to document the event, and that he had accompanied his friend to help him in this effort,” according to the court document.

The friend later told the BIG agent that “Ibrahim designed this story … to ‘cover up his a–‘” and that the friend never received any instructions from the FBI to document the riot.

“According to a friend of Ibrahim, Ibrahim went to the rally to promote himself,” the file said. “Ibrahim had been thinking about his next move after leaving the DEA and wanted the protests to be his stage to launch a political podcast and cigar brand ‘Liberty Tavern’.”