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They posted that they were storming the Capitol on Facebook. They streamed it live on YouTube and made Instagram stories of their fellow rioters as they broke in.
As the FBI continues to round up the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan.6 to try to stop President-elect Joe Biden’s nomination last week, it finds that a number of them appear openly confessing to crimes on open social networks, a review of court documents shows.
Capitol Police have come under heavy criticism for not being prepared to deal with the number of rioters who overwhelmed them and stormed into the halls of Congress, leaving the FBI to track many of them after they left the scene. .
But while federal law enforcement has significant legal and technical resources – like the ability to get warrants from phone or tech companies to see which phones were in an area at any given time, for example – it turned out to be unnecessary for a number of people. who have been charged so far.
Many have been documented by journalists and then easily identified online. Adam Johnson, accused of stealing government property after a photo of Getty showing him smiling as he carried the lectern from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi went viral, also posted a photo of him that day on his website. Facebook account. Wearing the same clothes and a distinctive hat, in front of a sign that said ‘Closed to all visits’, Johnson captioned the photo ‘No’.
Derrick Evans, a self-proclaimed Tory activist who was recently elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates but resigned before his first session began, broadcast himself live shouting “Derrick Evans is on Capitol Hill!” Although Evans deleted the video, a local reporter had already recorded and soon tweeted.
Selfies inside the Capitol were common and a number of people who took them have been accused of knowingly entering restricted grounds or of disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Kash Lee Hill posted a since-deleted photo on his public Facebook account that shows him standing on a pedestal next to a statue of Charles Aycock, a former North Carolina governor and white supremacist. The state sought to replace the statue with one of the late televangelists Billy Graham. “The day we let the Traitors who are constantly pushing the divide in OUR country know that we are done playing their games,” the Hill caption read.
Thomas Robertson, an officer with the Rocky Mount Police Department in Virginia, created a photo of himself with his colleague Jacob Fracker in front of a marble statue. Fracker posted on Facebook that he was not sorry for the photo.
“Lol to all those who may be concerned about the photo of me going around…. sorry i hate freedom? After a shrugging emoji, Robertson wrote “not like I’ve done anything illegal”.
Jenny Cudd, who wore a President Donald Trump’s flag as a cape in the Capitol, described on Facebook Live as part of a crowd that forced their way into the building.
“We just pushed, pushed and pushed, and yelled ‘go ahead’ and yelled charge. We just pushed and pushed, and we got it, “Cudd said, later adding,” We broke the door to Nancy Pelosi’s office.
A small army of online detectives is actively looking for footage from Jan.6 to identify rioters, and the FBI, which still seeks advice from the public, has received more than 126,000 digital media tips from the incident, a agency spokesperson. .
But this was not necessary for some suspects. Many showed up to the Capitol in costumes that made them easily recognizable. Jacob Chansley, charged with six counts, stood out in the photos with his face paint of the American flag, bare torso and horned fur headdress. He was already well known to scholars and journalists covering extremism because it was his incarnation as “QAnon Shaman” during Trump rallies and anti-Black Lives Matter protests.
Robert Packer shocked many Americans with his black “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt, but it wasn’t the first time he wore it. Court documents show someone attached to a convenience store in the Packer town of Newport News, Va., recognized him as a regular. The person gave the FBI photos of Packer’s store surveillance cameras previously wearing the same sweatshirt in the store, as well as of his car.
Olympic gold medalist swimmer Klete Keller, accused of knowingly entering or remaining on restricted grounds, wore his US team jacket on Capitol Hill.
Larry Brock, a decorated Air Force Combat veteran, was easily recognized by those who knew him when he wore his uniform, including medals and a helmet, as he wore zippered handcuffs on Senate floors.
“I just know when I saw this happening I was afraid he was there,” Brock’s ex-wife said on a call to the FBI. “I think you already know he was there. It’s such a great photo of him and I recognize his patch.
Investigators, however, still used traditional warrants to seal their cases against rioters. In one case, a social media arrest warrant for an alleged rioter showed him appearing to confess. Aaron Mostofsky, the son of a Brooklyn judge accused of stealing government property, has become a meme as a photo of him wearing a stitched fur suit and police vest went viral.
A friend sent Mostofsky a version of the meme, captioned “Imagine you pull out 10 shots of acid and look around and you’re in the US Capitol like shit,” on his Instagram account, @aaron_mostofsky_official. “
“Your famous,” said the friend.
“IK unfortunately,” Mostofsky replied.
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