Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth has turned himself in to authorities after taking part in the January 6 pro-Trump mafia riot in the US Capitol building while voting for the Electoral College for now President-elect Joe Biden.
WishTV reports that the FBI confirmed that Schaffer was delivered around 3 p.m. ET.
“Jon Schaffer, Columbus, IN, has been arrested in connection with a Jan. 6 incident at the U.S. Capitol,” an FBI official said. Schaffer faces six charges, including participating in an act of physical violence in a Capitol building. Schaffer was allegedly part of the riot police who sprayed Capitol police with “bear spray.”
Photos of the interior of the Capitol at the time of the riot surfaced online from photographers and media reporters who were also inside, covering the now historic attack.
A popular photo, seen above, showed Schaffer as one of the many participants and fans quickly recognized him as the founder of Iced Earth, quickly tagging Twitter authorities as he revealed his identity to them.
In the hours and days after the uprising, the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI worked to identify dozens of perpetrators, sharing online images of the violent outbreak of the afternoon. The photo showing Schaffer was among those images, where police described her as a “person of interest” for the crime of illegal entry. The same photo was used by the FBI, which declared it a “most wanted” target.
The photo shows Schaffer in a blue hooded sweatshirt, fingerless black gloves and a hat that says “Lifetime Member of the Oath Guardians.” The Oath Keepers is a far-right anti-government militia organization formed in 2009.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that regularly identifies hate groups and other domestic threats to civilization, told the Oath Keepers:
The Oath Keepers, which claims tens of thousands of current and former law enforcement officials and military veterans as members, is one of the largest radical anti-government groups in the U.S. today. While it only claims to uphold the Constitution, the entire organization is based on a set of baseless conspiracy theories about the federal government working to destroy the freedoms of Americans.
Prior to the Jan. 6 incident, Schaffer, who lives in Indiana, was present in Washington DC at a pro-Trump rally on Nov. 15, eight days after Joe Biden called the presidential race. While there, he spoke on video with the German media The world, about their reasons for attending and their thoughts on the potential for violence at the rally.
The full transcript of the published interview (via Blabbermouth) is reproduced in full below.
My name is Jon Schaffer. I’m from Indiana.
Some time ago, a group of thugs and criminals kidnapped this country. Now they are making their big move, and it won’t happen. And that is what it is. They are globalists. These are the slag of the earth. These are the criminals who are behind all the fraudulent rates on currency, they are behind all the wars, they are behind all the shit, they are behind tactics of divide and conquer, behind racial division. Everything is nonsense, everything is rubbish.
People have to wake up and get out of the womb because it goes down. They have taken the step. They’re messing with the wrong people here – trust me. And we needed it to be open like this: open fraud, open theft. Because now we see you and you will come down. Mark my words.
If anyone wants to provoke violence, I think there are many of us here who are prepared to do it. We don’t want it, but if they bring it, we’ll answer that: trust me.
I think that goes beyond President Trump. President Trump is a populist. He’s not your typical Republican. It is not an establishment. He is not going to start wars everywhere, as they do. What’s funny: where are all the Democrats who were against the war?
There is so much hatred for Trump, which is ridiculous. It is about a criminal mafia that has been in the shadows running the world, frankly, for a long time. They want to destroy all our sovereignty and bring about a global government.
We are not having it. We can still do business together, countries can be at peace, but we will not merge with a globalist communist system. It will not happen. There will be a lot of bloodshed, if that’s the case – trust me.
The American people will not bet on this shit, once they understand what is really going on. So this is where we are. No one wants it, but it pushes us to a point where we have no choice.
We will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.