WASHINGTON (AP) – These suspects were not exactly hidden.
“SO I AM,” a man posted on Instagram with a hand-held emoji pointing at himself in a photo of the violent crowd descending on the U.S. Capitol. “Okay, we stormed Capitol Hill, lol,” he texted someone while he was inside the building. “I just wanted to incriminate myself a little bit lol,” another wrote on Facebook about a selfie he took inside during the Jan. 6 riot.
In dozens of cases, supporters of President Donald Trump flaunted their activity on social media on the day of the deadly insurgency. Some, apparently realizing they had problems with the law, deleted their accounts only to find that their friends and family had already taken screenshots of their selfies, videos and comments and sent them to the FBI.
His total concern about being caught and his friends ’willingness to hand him over has helped authorities prosecute some 150 people as of Monday for federal crimes. But even with the help of the riot police themselves, investigators must work rigorously to link the images to the vandalism and suspects in the Jan. 6 events to prove their case in court. And because so few were arrested at the scene, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service have been forced to send agents to track down the suspects.
“Just because you left the DC region, you can still expect a knock on the door if we find out you were part of the criminal activity at the Capitol,” said Steven D’Antuono, the deputy director of Washington’s FBI office, said earlier this month. “Summary: The FBI spares no resources in this investigation.”
In recent weeks, the FBI has received more than 200,000 photos and video tips related to the riot. Researchers have placed billboards in various states with photos of wanted riots. Working on the advice of co-workers, acquaintances and friends, officers have tracked down photos of the driver’s license to match their face with those captured on the building’s camera. In some cases, authorities obtained Facebook or Twitter logs to connect their social media accounts to their email addresses or phone numbers. In others, officers used records from license plate readers to confirm their trips.
More than 800 are believed to have entered the Capitol, although it is likely that not everyone will be tracked down and charged with a crime. Federal prosecutors focus on the most critical cases and the most egregious examples of wrongdoing. And they have to weigh labor, cost, and testing when loading riot police.
A special group of prosecutors is examining the need to file charges of sedition against riot police, who carry up to 20 years in prison. A trio was charged with conspiracy; most have been charged with crimes such as illegal entry and disorderly conduct.
Many rioters posted selfies inside the Capitol on their social media accounts, conducted media interviews describing their experience, and readily admitted when federal investigators asked them to be there. A man created a Facebook album titled “Who’s House? OUR HOUSE ”, full of photos of him and others on the Capitol grounds, officials said.
“They might have thought, like so many people working with Trump, that if the president tells me to do it, it doesn’t break the law,” said Michael Gerhardt, an impeachment expert and professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law.
Others made mistakes, such as a Houston police officer who denied he had gone to the Capitol, and then agreed to have officers look at the pictures on his phone. The deleted photos folder contained images and videos, including selfies he took inside the building, authorities reported. Another man was carrying a GPS monitor ordered by a court after a robbery conviction that tracked all his movements inside the building.
A retired firefighter from Long Island, New York, sent a text message at the Capitol Roundabout to his girlfriend’s brother, saying he was “at the tip of the spear,” officials said. The brother was a federal agent for the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, who delivered the video to the FBI. A lawyer for the man, Thomas Fee, said he “was not part of any attempt to take over the United States Capitol” and that “the accusation is that he only entered through an open door into the Capitol, nothing month”.
Another man inside the Capitol was ready to ratify another riot police who stole the lectern of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and emailed the video to an FBI agent , even signing his own name. “Hello beautiful FBI lady,” she wrote, “Here are the links to the videos. Looks like Podium Guy is on one of them, minus the podium. Let me know if you need anything more.”
In another case, a man was on a flight out of DC two days after the riot when he kept shouting “Trump 2020!” and was expelled. An airport police officer saw the man get off the plane and the man was booked on another flight. Forty-five minutes later, the officer was watching a video on Instagram and recognized the man in a riot police group. The man, who was wearing the same shirt as the day he stormed the Capitol, was arrested at the airport, authorities said.
Even defense attorneys have acknowledged that the evidence poses a problem for them.
“I’m not a magician,” said a lawyer for the man seen in a photo wearing Pelosi’s atrium. “We have a photograph of our client in what appears to be inside a federal building or inside the government-owned Capitol,” he told reporters.
Capitol police had only planned to hold a demonstration of free speech and were overwhelmed by the crowd that roamed and roamed the Capitol halls for hours while lawmakers were in hiding. Five people were killed in melee, including a Capitol police officer who was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher.
Trump was charged after the riot with the charge of “inciting violence against the United States government.” Initial arguments will begin the week of February 8th. He is the first president to be indicted twice and the first to face trial after leaving office.
Unlike criminal cases, indictment trials do not have specific rules of evidence, so anything that has been said and done that day can be used. And several of the accused have said so in interviews with journalists or federal agents who simply listened to the president as they marched to the Capitol.
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Richer reported from Boston.