Federal agents arrested two more Capitol Hill rioters whose images had gone viral, of one carrying off the House Speaker’s lectern and another who wore horns and a fur pelt, while a top Democratic lawmaker called on mobile carriers to preserve social media content related to the carnage.
Dozens of people have been charged following the storming of the Capitol on Wednesday, with the FBI asking the public to help identify participants, given the proliferation of images of the riots on the internet. Five people have died, including a police officer.
Jacob Anthony Chansley, who featured prominently on social media wearing horns, a fur pelt, face paint and brandishing a spear adorned with the U.S. flag, turned himself in to police, the Department of Justice said.
Chansley, also known as Jake Angeli, called the FBI’s Washington office on Thursday and voluntarily spoke to law enforcement, the DOJ said.
“Chansley said that he came as part of a group effort with other ‘patriots’ from Arizona, at the request of the President that all ‘patriots’ come to D.C. on January 6, 2021,” the DOJ said in a release.
Federal agents also arrested Adam Christian Johnson, whose photo as he smiled and waved as he carried off House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern had also gone viral. Johnson, of Parrish, Florida, also streamed live video on Facebook of himself as he walked the halls of the Capitol, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
The video has been removed from online platforms and all his pages have been taken down.
On Saturday U.S. Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat who is the incoming Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, urged mobile carriers to preserve content and associated meta-data connected to the riot, which erupted as lawmakers gathered to certify the election of President-elect Joe Biden.
He sent letters to AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Apple, Facebook, Gab, Google, Parler, Signal, Telegram and Twitter. (Reuters)
