The four-hour insurrection that breached the U.S. Capitol brought the democratic process to a stunning halt and left one police officer and four others dead. Now, the country is seeking accountability.
Authorities say they could ultimately arrest hundreds, building some of their cases with the social media posts and live streams of alleged participants who triumphantly broadcast images of the mob. Investigations into possible charges encompass not only trespassing but also assaults on law enforcement, theft of national security and defense information, felony murder and more.
“The gamut of cases is mind-blowing,” said Michael R. Sherwin, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
The stories of those arrested — just a fraction of the thousands who gathered Jan. 6 at President Trump’s urging — illustrate how a baseless campaign to overturn the election led to conspiracy theorists and aggrieved Trump supporters violently storming the Capitol.
Here are some of the people who face charges.
Daniel Page Adams of Texas, along with his cousin Cody Page Carter Connell of Louisiana, were arrested and charged with assaulting police, civil disorder, and other offenses during the riot.
Authorities say video shows Adams at the front of a crowd on Capitol grounds pushing toward a line of police officers as he repeatedly shouts “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” before he and others sprint up the Capitol steps. According to an FBI affidavit, Adams is seen physically engaging with several law enforcement officers, who are trying to prevent them from breaking through.
Adam’s lawyer could not be immediately reached.
Read the full storyarrow-right Trump supporter Richard “Bigo” Barnett was photographed sitting at a desk in the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock) Barnett was arrested and could face a year in prison. (Washington County Sheriff/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock) Richard “Bigo” Barnett , 60, of Gravette, Ark., was captured in a widely shared image that showed the Trump supporter and self-described “white nationalist” sitting in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, his left foot propped up on a desk. The photo and Barnett’s interviews with the news media prompted law enforcement to search databases and confirm his identity, according to acting attorney general Jeffrey A. Rosen, who called the images “shocking” and “repulsive.”
Barnett is charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds; and theft of public money, property or records.
An attorney for Barnett did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read the full storyarrow-right Larry Rendell Brock, seen in the well of the Senate chamber holding white zip-tie cuffs — plastic restraints that police use to detain people, prosecutors said. (Win Mcnamee/Getty Images) Larry Rendell Brock, a 53-year-old retired Air Force lieutenant colonel from Texas, was pictured in the well of the Senate chamber wearing a green combat helmet and holding white zip-tie handcuffs, plastic restraints used by police to detain people, prosecutors said. He is charged with one count of knowingly entering a restricted building and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct.
Speaking to the New Yorker , Brock echoed the president’s baseless claims of election fraud and said he assumed he was welcome to enter the building. “The President asked for his supporters to be there to attend, and I felt like it was important, because of how much I love this country, to actually be there,” he said.
Brock did not respond to a request for comment, and his public defender could not immediately be reached.
Read the full storyarrow-right Jacob Anthony Chansley was one of the most distinctive individuals roaming the Capitol Wednesday: shirtless and tattooed, wearing face paint and a headdress made of coyote skin and buffalo horns. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) Chansley was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on the Capitol grounds. (Stephanie Keith/Reuters) Jacob Anthony Chansley was arrested after storming into the Capitol shirtless and wearing a headdress of buffalo horns and coyote fur. Speaking to The Washington Post , the Phoenix resident expressed ardent support for the QAnon conspiracy movement and Trump’s false claim that there was widespread fraud in the presidential election.
“What we did on Jan. 6 in many ways was an evolution in consciousness, because as we marched down the street along these ley lines, shouting ‘USA’ or shouting things like ‘freedom’ … we were actually affecting the quantum realm,” Chansley told The Post.
Chansley was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on the Capitol grounds.
The Post spoke to him before his arrest and could not immediately reach him afterward. His public defender did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read the full storyarrow-right Authorities say they arrested Lonnie Coffman after finding him with a cache of weapons in his pickup truck the day of the Capitol riots. (U.S. attorney's office for the District of Columbia) Lonnie Leroy Coffman, 70, of Falkville, Ala., was arrested after authorities found him with a cache of weapons in his red GMC pickup truck the day of the riot, according to prosecutors .
Coffman is accused of carrying 11 Mason jars filled with gasoline and melted plastic foam — which an FBI affidavit said could produce a “napalm-like” explosion of sticky, flammable liquid — in addition to a rifle, a shotgun, two 9mm pistols, a .22-caliber pistol, five types of ammunition and a large-capacity magazine, all loaded and unregistered and unlicensed in the District of Columbia. Coffman had an apparent license to carry a pistol in Alabama, prosecutors said.
A federal grand-jury indictment charged him with 16 counts of D.C. firearms violations and one federal firearms count. He also possessed a crossbow, several machetes, a stun gun and smoke devices, prosecutors said. In an earlier criminal complaint from U.S. Capitol Police, he was charged with one count of unlawful possession of a destructive device and one count of carrying a pistol without a license under D.C. law.
Coffman’s assistant federal defender declined to comment.
Read the full storyarrow-right Cody Page Carter Connell of Louisiana was arrested and charged with assaulting a federal officer, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, among other criminal offenses.
An FBI affidavit said Connell allegedly described events in a conversation on social media, saying he and his cousin Daniel Page Adams of Texas stormed police and breached the Capitol after Adams “got clubbed and shot with rubber bullet.”
“But we pushed the cops against the wall, they dropped all their gear and left,” the FBI quoted Connell as saying. “We will be back and it will be a lot worse than yesterday,” Connell allegedly wrote on Facebook, the FBI said.
Connell’s lawyer could not be immediately reached.
Read the full storyarrow-right U.S. Capitol Police encountered Matthew Ross Council in a group of rioters who broke through an emergency door, according to a probable-cause statement from the arresting officer. As the mob pushed their way in, Council shoved an officer, the document said. Officers pepper-sprayed him and took him into custody.
Council, 49, had apparently come to Washington from Riverview, Fla., a southeastern suburb of Tampa where Council has worked as a self-employed marketing and sales communications consultant, according to his LinkedIn biography. A former football player at Virginia’s Liberty University, the conservative evangelical institution, Council appears to have dabbled in politics, as well. He worked on at least one unsuccessful Republican campaign for the North Carolina House of Representatives roughly 10 years ago and also pursued political science courses at Seminole State in 2011.
The arresting Capitol Police officer said that as he read Council his Miranda rights, he “spontaneously expressed remorse about pushing the officer and indicated that he did not intend to injure her.”
Council did not respond to requests for comment; a clerk at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said no attorney had been listed to represent him yet.
Defending the storming of the U.S. Capitol as “cool,” Gracyn Courtright broadcast her participation on social media — and embraced the firestorm that followed as publicity, the FBI says.
Video from the University of Kentucky student’s Twitter account showed her inside the Capitol building, according to an affidavit.
“INFAMY IS JUST AS GOOD AS FAME,” she wrote above a mirror photo posted to Instagram either the day of the Capitol riot or the day after, according to the affidavit. “EITHER WAY I END UP MORE KNOWN. XOXO”
The affidavit outlines alleged offenses including theft of a “Members Only” sign; knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds, and engaging in disorderly conduct in the Capitol building or its grounds with the intent of disrupting a session of Congress.
The Washington Post was unable to reach Courtright, who authorities say is a college senior, and it was not immediately clear whether she has a lawyer. A reporter could not clearly hear a man who answered at a phone number listed for her address, and the line soon went dead.
Read the full storyarrow-right Jenny Cudd was arrested and charged in federal court with entering a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and violent entry or disorderly conduct.
Authorities say the 36-year-old florist from western Texas was photographed in the Capitol Rotunda with a Trump flag draped over her shoulders, and soon after launched a live stream boasting, “We did break down … Nancy Pelosi’s office door.” An FBI agent said in a statement of facts that in addition to the photographs and live stream, he reviewed security footage showing Cudd entering the building, taking pictures in the Rotunda and roaming the halls.
An attorney for Cudd in D.C. declined to comment on the charges. Cudd denied wrongdoing in an interview with a Midland, Tex., television station, saying she did not mean for it to be taken literally when she said “we” broke into Pelosi’s office. “Do I think that it was wrong for me to go through an open door and get inside of the Capitol? No I don’t,” she said in a separate interview with a CBS affiliate. “I didn’t break any laws. I didn’t do anything unlawful.”
In a since-deleted Facebook Live video, former West Virginia Republican lawmaker Derrick Evans streamed footage of rioters prying open Capitol doors. (Perry Bennett/AP) Former West Virginia lawmaker Derrick Evans (R), 35, was among the most high-profile arrests after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. He announced his resignation from the West Virginia House of Delegates a day after he was taken into custody and, according to the Justice Department, charged with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, in addition to one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Federal prosecutors allege that in a since-deleted Facebook Live video, Evans streamed footage of rioters prying open Capitol doors, before he crossed the threshold of the doorway himself and can be seen on video shouting: “We’re in, we’re in! Derrick Evans is in the Capitol! ”
Resigning less than four weeks after he was sworn into office, Evans expressed regret but did not admit wrongdoing. An attorney for Evans, John H. Bryan, has maintained that Evans is innocent, that he was not part of the violent mob that damaged the Capitol and that he was exercising his First Amendment rights.
Read the full storyarrow-right David Ray Fitzgerald, a 48-year-old tattoo artist from Roselle, Ill., said he did not venture into the Capitol but was arrested on charges of a curfew violation and unlawful entry as he stood in the parking lot. He has pleaded not guilty, court records show.
The father of seven said he doesn’t usually vote but became a staunch Trump fan over the past year as he spent days in quarantine reading up on the president’s attitudes toward trade agreements and abortion. “I’m not a ‘deranged Trump supporter,’ ” he said. “I’m an American supporter, and I think that there’s only one person on the ticket that has the same values as I do.”
Fitzgerald and friends pooled their resources to organize the drive and book a Holiday Inn room for the Jan. 6 rally, driven by their hope that Trump could still win the election. Fitzgerald said he only watched the chaos from the grass and didn’t venture into the Capitol.
Read the full storyarrow-right Jacob Fracker, 29, and Thomas Robertson, 47, both officers with the Rocky Mount Police Department in Virginia, were arrested for their alleged actions at the Capitol and have been placed on administrative leave.
An arrest affidavit says the FBI had information that Robertson and Fracker were photographed in the Capitol between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Jan. 6 making an “obscene statement” in front of a statue, while off-duty.
According to the affidavit by U.S. Capitol Police Special Agent Vincent Veloz, a now-deleted Facebook post by Fracker was captioned: “Lol to anyone who’s possibly concerned about the picture of me going around. … Sorry I hate freedom? … Not like I did anything illegal … y’all do what you feel you need to.”
Robertson told a local news station that they were allowed entry by Capitol Police and did not participate in any violence. Both Robertson and Fracker said in court they were military veterans.
The Post was unable to reach the officers, and it was not clear if they have attorneys.
Read the full storyarrow-right Robert Gieswein, 24, of Woodland Park, Colo., is charged with assaulting police, civil disorder and obstruction of police and government. In court papers, FBI agents say he runs a private paramilitary training group and is affiliated with an extremist group, the Three Percenters.
The FBI said in court filings that Gieswein was apparently recorded multiple times inside and outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, decked out in military garb with two distinctive markings that made it easier for investigators to trace his actions that day — a patch for his paramilitary group, the Woodland Wild Dogs, and a black pouch on his chest that said, “MY MOM THINKS I’M SPECIAL.”
At about 2:13 p.m. that day, according to FBI affidavits, Gieswein appears in a video with a helmeted group breaking a Capitol window using a riot shield and a piece of lumber, in one of the earliest breaches of the building.
Information about Gieswein’s attorney was not available, and efforts to reach Gieswein and relatives were unsuccessful.
Read the full storyarrow-right Couy Griffin, a county Commissioner in Otero County, N.M., and founder of an organization called “Cowboys for Trump,” was charged with illegally entering or remaining in a restricted building. He was arrested after the FBI said it received a tip that he had been present at the Capitol riots.
Griffin has openly talked about his involvement in the siege, stating in a video posted on the “Cowboys for Trump” Facebook page, which has now been deleted, that he “climbed up to the top of the Capitol and … had a first row seat,” according an FBI affidavit. In the same video he declared his intentions of going back to the U.S. Capitol for Inauguration Day, where he would “bring his firearms” and plant an American “flag on the desk of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, and warned there would be “blood running out of that building.”
No lawyer was listed for Griffin in his case records as of Tuesday.
Read the full storyarrow-right Leonard Guthrie Jr., a 48-year-old resident of Cape May, N.J., said he broke through a police barrier to reach the U.S. Capitol steps and readily admits his transgressions, bluntly telling The Post, “I broke the law.”
He was arrested for unlawful entry. He said he hasn’t often been well enough to work since having two surgeries on his back. In the absence of employment, he has heavily leaned into his Christian beliefs and conservative political views, he said. When he heard about the “Stop the Steal” rally, Guthrie said he thought he could combine his two passions. If he and other Christians had been able to pray outside while senators voted inside, he feels certain it would have changed their votes.
“I know it would have,” he said. He says he feels aggrieved. “We’ve been silenced for so long,” he said. “For years, because I voted for Trump, I’m called a racist, a Nazi, a bigot and all that stuff, and it’s not right.”
Read the full storyarrow-right Suzanne Ianni leaves the courthouse in Boston on Jan. 19, 2021, after appearing on charges related to the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (Photo by Faith Ninivaggi/Reuters) (Faith Ninivaggi/Reuters) Massachusetts town official Suzanne Ianni, 59, of Natick, was arrested on charges related to the Capitol riot after her group sent members to the Jan. 6 event, according to the FBI. She was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Authorities say the Natick Town Meeting member was pictured with others in the Capitol building and listed as an organizer of the “Super Happy Fun America ” trip, which included 11 buses of people. The group, known for organizing Boston’s Straight Pride Parade, claims to advocate for the “straight community.”
More than 1,600 residents petitioned to have her removed from office, prompting her town to reevaluate its bylaws, Mass Live reported.
Her attorney, Henry Fasoldt, did not respond to requests for comment from The Post.
Douglas Jensen, a 41-year-old laborer from Des Moines, is facing federal charges after photos and video captured him leading rioters up a staircase at the U.S. Capitol. (Polk County Jail/AP) Douglas Jensen, a 41-year-old laborer from Des Moines, is facing federal charges after he was captured in photos and videos leading rioters up a staircase as a police officer attempted to hold the crowd back.
Jensen’s boss, Dick Felice, who owns Forrest & Associate Masonry, said he terminated Jensen’s employment. “He committed a crime, as far as I’m concerned,” Felice said.
Jensen could not be reached for comment, and his attorneys did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
Read the full storyarrow-right A photo of Adam Johnson carrying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern — smiling and waving at the camera — went viral amid efforts to identify rioters at the Capitol. (Win Mcnamee/Getty Images) Adam Johnson has been charged with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, one count of theft of government property and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. (Pinellas County Sheriff's Office/Reuters) Adam Johnson, 36, of Bradenton, Fla., was photographed carrying Pelosi’s lectern through the building and waving at the cameras. The widely circulated images led to his arrest just days later. Johnson also streamed on Facebook Live while inside the Capitol and posted on his social media accounts that he was in Washington, the Tampa Bay Times reported .
Johnson has been charged with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, one count of theft of government property and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
An attorney for Johnson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read the full storyarrow-right Officials say that Chad Barrett Jones, of Mount Washington, Ky., was part of a violent crowd that stormed the House Speaker’s Lobby during the breach of the U.S. Capitol, smashing a window with a flagpole moments before Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot.
An FBI charging affidavit alleges that Jones is the man shown in video at Babbitt’s left on Jan. 6, wearing a red hooded jacket and gray skullcap and striking the lobby door’s glass panels as a mob chanted “Break it down!” and “Let’s f-----g go!”
Jones allegedly used a flagpole to break the glass, the affidavit says. Jones is charged with assaulting a federal officer, civil disorder, obstruction of justice, destruction of property and trespassing.
The Post could not reach Jones.
Read the full storyarrow-right Klete Keller in the Capitol (Townhall Media/Julio Rosas/Townhall Media/Julio Rosas) Klete Keller, a 38-year-old five-time Olympic medalist, was spotted on video wearing a Team USA jacket in the Capitol Rotunda during the riots.
He was charged with violent entry, obstructing law enforcement and disorderly conduct after FBI agents used video and other evidence to confirm his presence inside the Capitol, records show. The swimmer represented the United States at the Summer Olympics in 2000, 2004 and 2008.
Standing 6-foot-6 and wearing a familiar Olympic jacket, Keller was easy to identify for many swimmers, coaches and officials who had competed with and against him over the years; two of whom told The Post they recognized the maskless Keller in the footage. In the video, he can be seen in the Rotunda, at one point amid a mob of Trump supporters and law enforcement officers pushing against each other.
Keller has made no public comments about his presence at the Capitol and did not return phone messages or emails seeking comment.
Read the full storyarrow-right Cleveland G. Meredith Jr. of Colorado was arrested Jan. 7 and later charged with interstate communication of threats and several weapons violations after the FBI received information about his alleged threats and presence in Washington.
Meredith arrived in Washington on the day of the planned pro-Trump rally with an assault-style rifle outfitted with a telescopic sight, a Glock firearm with high-capacity magazines and more than 2,500 rounds of ammunition, according to federal prosecutors . Federal investigators later found through cellphone records that Meredith sent multiple text messages to friends between Jan. 4 and Jan. 7 threatening violence against Pelosi and others, court records show.
The Post could not reach Meredith, and his attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read the full storyarrow-right Aaron Mostofsky, who has since been arrested, was photographed inside the Capitol wearing what appear to be several fur pelts, a bulletproof vest and a riot shield. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP) Mostofsky, the son of a Brooklyn judge, faces charges including violent or disorderly conduct at the Capitol and theft of government property exceeding $1,000. (Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images) Aaron Mostofsky, the 34-year-old son of a Kings County Supreme Court judge, was arrested at his brother’s Brooklyn home and faces four charges, including felony theft of government property.
Mostofsky attracted attention from photographers and videographers after he was seen in the Capitol on Jan. 6 wearing what appear to be several fur pelts, a U.S. Capitol Police bulletproof vest and a riot shield. The widely circulated images, which included Mostofsky speaking briefly to the New York Post, quickly drew the notice of federal investigators.
Mostofsky’s attorney, Jeffrey T. Schwartz, declined to comment but told ABC New York that his client was not part of the mob action. “He was not rampaging. He got caught up in it.”
Read the full storyarrow-right Eric Gavelek Munchel, of Tennessee, was charged in federal court for his alleged participation in the Capitol riots. (Metro Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tenn./AP) Eric Gavelek Munchel, of Tennessee, was arrested in his home state after allegedly participating in the storming of the Capitol. He was charged in federal court with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
A person authorities believe was Munchel was photographed climbing over a railing in the Senate gallery carrying plastic restraints and wearing an item in a holster on his right hip, according to the Justice Department . The person also had a cellphone mounted on his chest with the camera facing outward.
“It was a kind of flexing of muscles,” Munchel told the Sunday Times of his role at the Capitol. “The intentions of going in were not to fight the police. The point of getting inside the building is to show them that we can, and we will.”
Munchel, his family and his neighbors did not respond to calls from The Post, and his attorney did not immediately return an inquiry.
Read the full storyarrow-right Several photographs taken at the Capitol show a man identified as Robert Keith Packer wearing a sweatshirt with the words “Camp Auschwitz” above a skull and crossbones. (Western Tidewater Regional Jail/AP) Robert Keith Packer, 56, of Newport News, Va., is charged with unlawful entry and disorderly conduct on restricted Capitol grounds.
Multiple photographs taken at the Capitol show a man identified as Packer wearing a sweatshirt with the words “Camp Auschwitz” above a skull and crossbones, the FBI concluded . Beneath the skull was the phrase “Work brings freedom,” a rough English translation of the German words that hung over one of the gates of the Nazi death camp where more than 1.1 million people were killed during World War II.
Read the full storyarrow-right Video footage of the Capitol riot on January 6 shows plaintiff Guy Reffitt wearing a tactical-style vest and rinsing his eyes. ((Courtesy of FBI)) Federal officials allege that two days after Guy Reffitt joined the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, he returned home to Wylie, Tex., and proudly told his family of his escapade.
But by Jan. 11, when Reffitt learned the FBI was on to him, he changed his tune, according to an affidavit. “If you turn me in, you’re a traitor and you know what happens to traitors … traitors get shot,” Reffitt, 48, said to his son and daughter, according to his wife, who recounted the conversation to the FBI, which did not name the relatives.
Reffitt was arrested and charged with unlawful entry into the Capitol and obstruction of justice for allegedly threatening his family.
“I love him but I hate him,” Reffitt’s 18-year-old son said in an interview with KXAS, saying his father has grown increasingly obsessed with politics. “I don’t really know him anymore.”
The Post could not reach Reffitt, and it is not clear whether he has a lawyer.
Read the full storyarrow-right Bradley Rukstales, then-CEO of a Chicago-area data analytics company, faces charges including violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
In a public statement, he said he entered the Capitol through open doors to “see what was taking place inside” and condemned “the violence and destruction that took place in Washington.”
“It was the single worst personal decision of my life,” he wrote.
Rukstales was fired from his job, according to a statement by his former employer, and did not respond to a Post reporter’s requests for further comment. An attorney for Rukstales could not immediately be reached.
Read the full storyarrow-right Boston’s Straight Pride Parade organizer Mark G. Sahady, 46, of Malden, was arrested after federal agents said they discovered photos of Sahady in the Capitol. He was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Sahady is listed in court records as the vice president of “Super Happy Fun America,” the controversial group behind Boston’s Straight Pride Parade. In posts, the group, which purports to be an advocate for the “straight community,” wrote it planned to “get wild” in Washington on the day of the Capitol riots.
Attorney Rinaldo Delle Gaddo said Sahady did not do anything illegal because the area of the Capitol building he was in was “public” and “not cordoned off.”
Robert Lee Sanford Jr., 55, a recently retired firefighter from Chester, Pa., threw a fire extinguisher at members of the Capitol Police, according to law enforcement. A tipster in Pennsylvania told the FBI that Sanford, a friend of many years, confessed “he was the person that the FBI was looking for” in connection with videos showing a man apparently hurling an object at a group of officers, court documents say.
Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick, who died as a result of injuries sustained in the riot, was hurt in a separate incident.
Sanford recently retired from the Chester Fire Department, an FBI agent said, and acknowledged that he was photographed wearing a hat bearing “CFD.”
“I’m just stunned,” said retired Chester Fire Department battalion chief Charles E. Hopkins Jr.
A lawyer listed for Sanford did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Sanford could not be reached.
Read the full storyarrow-right Jon Schaffer, a heavy-metal guitarist from Columbus, Ind., who founded the band Iced Earth, was among the rioters who targeted Capitol Police with bear spray, authorities say. He was charged with six crimes, including engaging in an act of physical violence.
Officials say Schaffer was photographed inside the Capitol on Jan. 6 wearing a hat that said “Oath Keepers Lifetime Member,” an apparent reference to an armed civilian group. The Oath Keepers showed up last summer at Black Lives Matter protests in military gear, declaring themselves vigilante forces seeking to prevent vandalism.
According to the FBI, Schaffer was at a pro-Trump march in November attended by the Oath Keepers and said: “We’re not going to merge into some globalist, communist system. It will not happen. There will be a lot of bloodshed if it comes down to that, trust me.”
It was not clear whether Schaffer has a lawyer.
Read the full storyarrow-right Authorities say Kevin Seefried, of Delaware, was pictured carrying a Confederate flag inside the Capitol. (Mike Theiler/Reuters) Authorities say Kevin Seefried, of Delaware, was pictured carrying a Confederate flag inside the Capitol and told FBI investigators he brought it from his home, where he normally displays it outside.
He and his son Hunter Seefried were among the first group to break into the Capitol and were identified by law enforcement after a co-worker of Hunter’s reported that he bragged about being in the building, according to court records.
Both men were charged with trespassing, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. They could not be reached for comment.
Read the full storyarrow-right John Earle Sullivan, 26, who shot video inside the U.S. Capitol, was arrested on Jan. 14, 2021. (Tooele County, Utah, Sheriff's Office) John Earle Sullivan, whose 40-minute video following rioters through the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 captured the fatal shooting of a Trump supporter , has been charged with causing a civil disorder, trespassing and disorderly conduct.
Sullivan repeatedly exhorted rioters to enter the building and overwhelm police, and seemed to convince Capitol Police officers to walk away from the glass door entry to the House Speaker’s Lobby, his video shows, though he later claimed he was there to document — not participate — in the event. The footage has placed him at the center of a conservative campaign to blame liberal groups for the Capitol siege .
Sullivan’s lawyer, Mary Corporon, said that she had no comment.
Read the full storyarrow-right Douglas Sweet, of Virginia, faces charges including violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
His daughter Robyn Sweet described him as a self-employed handyman in his late 50s who lives in rural Virginia and became increasingly fixated with conspiracy theories after Barack Obama was elected president. After Trump rose to power, Sweet said, her father attended the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017 and has discussed baseless conspiracy theories spread by QAnon followers.
Douglas Sweet could not be reached for comment. After his arrest, he posted a message on Facebook saying he was released on his own recognizance and described the unlawful-entry charge as “a citation equal to ticket.” It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.
Read the full storyarrow-right Riley June Williams is charged with helping to steal a laptop from the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (Dauphin County Prison/Via Reuters) Riley June Williams, a 22-year-old from Pennsylvania, is charged with helping to steal a laptop from Pelosi’s office and obstructing an official proceeding during the riots, two felony charges for which the defendant could face decades in prison.
The FBI says Williams appears to have filmed and then shared a video of another person lifting an HP computer off a desk. An affidavit links to images of all-caps, typo-riddled social media posts from a user named “Riley” who declares that they “STOLE S — T FROM NANCY POLESI.”
A public defender appointed to represent Williams, Lori Ulrich, said in court that many of the allegations lodged against her client “are false.” Williams is also charged with trespassing as well as violent entry to and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Key to the FBI’s investigation was a person who claimed to be Williams’s “former romantic partner” and who shared the video clips allegedly showing Williams aiding the theft of government property.
Read the full storyarrow-right About this story The Washington Post is regularly updating this list of individuals charged in connection with the attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Reporting by Derek Hawkins, Hannah Knowles, Kim Bellware, Spencer S. Hsu, Amy Brittain, Meagan Flynn, Rachel Weiner, Nicole Dungca, Jenn Abelson, Lateshia Beachum, Paulina Villegas, Rick Maese, Devlin Barrett, Meryl Kornfield, Dan Lamothe, Fredrick Kunkle, Julie Zauzmer, Keith L. Alexander, David Willman and Shayna Jacobs.
Editing by Herman Wong . Copy editing by Carey L. Biron. Design and development by Junne Alcantara .
