Key arrests so far from the Capitol riot
Authorities are investigating hundreds of people in connection with the deadly pro-Trump riot at the US Capitol.
Some of the defendants are accused of bringing weapons to Capitol Hill. Others were photographed ransacking the building. Many are charged with unlawful entry or violent entry.
Here’s what we know about some of those who have been charged.
Richard ‘Bigo’ Barnett
Barnett, of Arkansas, was photographed sitting at a desk in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the January 6 riots, authorities say.
Federal authorities say he was taken into custody two days later in Little Rock.
Barnett, known as Bigo, was caught on video surveillance entering Pelosi’s office area around 2:50 p.m. ET with an American flag and cell phone and leaving six minutes later with only his cell phone, according to court documents. He was photographed with his boot propped on a desk and the flag draped nearby.
He later spoke with news media outlets and was captured on video holding an envelope from Pelosi’s office. Barnett told a reporter, “I did not steal it.” He said he took the envelope because he had bled on it and “put a quarter on her desk,” according to court filings signed by a special agent with US Capitol Police.
Barnett was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds as well as the theft of public property, according to a criminal complaint.
He is in FBI custody, according to the sheriff’s office in Benton County, Arkansas.
Barnett “will answer the accusations made against him in court at the appropriate time,” the office of his attorney, Anthony Siano, wrote in a January 14 email to CNN.
Larry Rendell Brock
Prosecutors say Brock, a 53-year-old retired Air Force Reserve officer from Texas, was photographed roaming the Senate chamber clutching a white flex cuff, which is used by law enforcement to restrain or detain subjects. Photos show the man sporting a military helmet, green tactical vest and black-and-camo jacket.
Brock was arrested January 10. He was charged with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, according to a Justice Department news release.
In an interview with the New Yorker, Brock denied he holds racist views and repeated President Donald Trump’s baseless assertions of election fraud.
He also said that he was opposed to vandalizing the building, and was dismayed when he learned of the extent of the destruction. “I know it looks menacing,” he told the New Yorker. “That was not my intent.”
Jacob Anthony Chansley
Chansley, an Arizona man also known as Jake Angeli, was seen in photos at the Capitol, shirtless and donning face paint and a bearskin headdress with horns, according to his arrest warrant.
He was taken into custody January 9 and was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, federal authorities said.
An indictment filed January 11 shows Chansley is facing additional charges as well, now totaling six. He is now charged with civil disorder; obstruction of an official proceeding; entering and remaining in a restricted building; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building; violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and demonstrating in a Capitol building.
A federal judge said January 15 that Chansley will remain in jail as he awaits trial, after the Justice Department portrayed him as a particularly belligerent leader among the rioters.
US Magistrate Judge Deborah Fine said she had “no confidence Mr. Chansley would follow any condition I set” if he disagreed with the court’s orders, and that he would be a danger to the community especially in the coming days if he were to be released. Authorities will transport him to detention in Washington, DC.
Chansley told the FBI he came to Washington “as a part of a group effort, with other ‘patriots’ from Arizona, at the request of the President that all ‘patriots’ come to DC on January 6, 2021,” according to a narrative from investigators in his court record.
Chansley had called the FBI the day after the attack and confirmed to the agency he was the person seen in photos in the vice president’s chair in the Senate, a court document reads.
In a subsequent court memorandum filed in an attempt to keep him detained, prosecutors say Chansley left a note for Vice President Mike Pence on the dais where Pence had stood that morning, and in it he wrote that “it’s only a matter of time, justice is coming.”
Chansley told the FBI that he did not mean the note as a threat, but said Pence was a “child-trafficking traitor,” and went on a diatribe about President-elect Joe Biden and other politicians being traitors, the prosecutors wrote.
Chansley’s attorney, Al Watkins, told CNN on January 14 that Chansley “wasn’t violent.”
“He didn’t cross over any police lines. He didn’t assault anyone,” Watkins said.
Watkins said Chansley “loved Trump, every word.”
“He listened to him. He felt like he was answering the call of our President,” said Watkins, who said Chansley hopes for a presidential pardon.
Known by followers as the QAnon Shaman, Chansley had a Facebook page filled with posts evoking the conspiracy theories of QAnon, whose adherents believe that there is a cabal of Satan-worshipping sexual abusers who have infiltrated the highest reaches of American government and are being opposed by Trump.
He served in the US Navy from 2005 to October 2007, records show.
Lonnie Leroy Coffman
Prosecutors say Coffman, of Falkville, Alabama, was arrested after authorities found 11 homemade bombs, an assault rifle and a handgun in his truck parked two blocks from the Capitol during the riot.
A grand jury indicted him January 11 on 17 criminal counts, including a federal charge of unlawful possession of a destructive device. It also included charges alleging he possessed ammunition, unregistered firearms and firearms without a license in violation of District of Columbia laws.
Coffman had parked his pickup truck on the morning of January 6 near the National Republican Club, a block from the US Capitol, according to court documents. Capitol police started searching the truck after seeing a firearm handle in a passenger seat, the documents say.
Inside the truck were 11 Mason jars with liquid, with a hole punched in the top of each; lighters and rags; several weapons including a handgun, an assault-style rifle, a shotgun, a crossbow with bolts, a stun gun and several machetes; several large-capacity ammunition feeding devices; and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, according to a memorandum that prosecutors filed January 12 in support of his detention.
When police found and searched him about a block away after dusk, Coffman was carrying a 9 mm handgun and a .22-caliber derringer-style pistol in each of his front pockets, a police complaint said. None of the weapons found in his truck or on his person were registered to him.
Coffman told law enforcement that the jars “contained a mixture of melted Styrofoam and gasoline,” according to the detention memo.
That combination could have the effect of napalm, and federal investigators concluded the 11 jars and related items were “parts designed to create … Molotov cocktails,” the detention memo reads.
Investigators also found handwritten notes in Coffman’s truck that included a quote about the need “to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution,” according to court records.
The notes also included the names of a Democratic member of Congress that he singled out for being Muslim, and an Obama-appointed judge. The handwritten notes also contained references to right-wing conspiracy websites, according to the records.
Prosecutors have not accused Coffman of participating in the attack on the Capitol building. His lawyer, Tony Miles, said at a hearing on January 12 that Coffman was “innocent” of the charges and questioned the strength of the case. He noted that Coffman was an Army veteran who fought in Vietnam.
A federal judge ruled January 12 that Coffman would remain in jail while he awaits trial on the weapons charges.
Jenny Cudd
Cudd, a former mayoral candidate in Midland, Texas, faces two charges, according to the US Department of Justice.
Cudd, who posted a video on the eve of the riot in which she talked about how the next day was going to be a “ruckus,” is charged with knowingly entering a restricted building and knowingly impeding or disrupting the orderly conduct of government business.
A criminal complaint states that Cudd and another person were photographed inside the Capitol and that Cudd livestreamed a video on Facebook sometime after the actual forced entry of the building.
“Jenny Cudd also stated in the video, the following indicating her presence inside the US Capitol, ‘We did break down the Nancy Pelosi’s office door and somebody stole her gavel and took a picture sitting in the chair flipping off the camera,'” the court document says.
Don Flanary, Cudd’s lawyer, told CNN that she “was arrested by the FBI this (Wednesday) morning and brought before a magistrate in Midland.” She has been released on bond.
Flanary said Cudd plans to plead not guilty.
Derrick Evans
Evans, who at the time was a West Virginia state lawmaker, is in a video that shows him in a crowd that broke through a large, ornamental Capitol Hill door, authorities say.
Evans was charged with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
A federal magistrate judge in West Virginia released Evans on his personal recognizance after he appeared in court January 8, according to court records.
Evans, who has denied taking part in destruction and violence, resigned from the West Virginia House of Delegates on January 9.
“The past few days have certainly been a difficult time for my family, colleagues and myself, so I feel it’s best at this point to resign my seat in the House and focus on my personal situation and those I love,” Evans said in a news release on the West Virginia legislature’s website.
“I take full responsibility for my actions, and deeply regret any hurt, pain or embarrassment I may have caused my family, friends, constituents and fellow West Virginians. I hope this action I take today can remove any cloud of distraction from the state Legislature, so my colleagues can get to work in earnest building a brighter future for our state.”
CNN obtained video that federal prosecutors say Evans livestreamed on Facebook — and later deleted — while in the crowd.
Although he deleted the video, according to a criminal complaint, someone uploaded a copy of it to Reddit. Prosecutors claim in the criminal complaint that Evans is the man heard in the video.
In the video, Evans is heard asking someone, at one point outside the Capitol, “Are they still fighting the cops there?”
“We’re in,” Evans yells once inside the Capitol, as others continue to enter the building.
Evans has said he only filmed the event as an “independent member of the media to film history,” though it does not appear he has any experience working as one.
Evans’ lawyer, John Bryan, declined to provide comment to CNN about the charges.
However, Bryan told CNN in a statement January 7 that his client “had no choice but to enter” the Capitol due to the size of the crowd he was in, and that “it wasn’t apparent to Mr. Evans that he wasn’t allowed to follow the crowd into this public area of the Capitol, inside which members of the public were already located.”
Douglas Jensen
Video shows Jensen, 41, chasing a Black Capitol Police officer up some stairs during the riot, according to a CNN comparative analysis of his booking photo and posts on social media.
On a Twitter account bearing his name, Jensen twice identified himself in one of the pictures that was circulating online after the riot. His neighbor in Des Moines, Iowa, confirmed to CNN affiliate KCCI that the man in the photos was Jensen.
Jensen — dressed in a QAnon T-shirt — is also seen gesturing toward another Capitol police officer in an Associated Press photo taken by photojournalist Manuel Balce Ceneta.
In video captured by the Huffington Post’s Igor Bobic, Jensen — wearing the same QAnon T-shirt — is seen chasing Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman with a mob of rioters following him. Once at the top of a set of stairs, the officer glances toward a doorway to his left that leads to the Senate floor and moves away from it and toward the camera, steering the mob away from the Senate floor.
Jensen was arrested on suspicion of being involved in a violent crowd breaking into the Capitol, according to the FBI and local authorities in Iowa.
FBI officials presented Jensen to Polk County Jail for processing on January 9.
He faces federal charges including unlawfully entering the Capitol, disrupting government business, violent entry and parading in a Capitol building and blocking law enforcement during the riot, according to the FBI.
CNN’s attempts to contact a lawyer for Jensen weren’t immediately successful.
Adam Johnson
Johnson, 36, was arrested in Florida days after the riot, accused of stealing the House speaker’s lectern, according to a news release.
Johnson was 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.
Johnson was released on a $25,000 signature bond, CNN affiliate WFTS reported. He is subject to a monitoring system and curfew, had to surrender firearms and his passport, and is due January 19 in federal court in Washington, WFTS reported.
Attorneys for Johnson said a viral picture showing him with carrying the lectern at the Capitol could be problematic moving forward with his case, according to the affiliate.
“Mr. Johnson, clearly, is taking this very seriously,” attorney David Bigney said, according to video posted by WFTS.
“What we’re dealing with is a lot of notoriety, simply because of a photograph that was taken in an instant, a lot of judgment based on that photograph, which has led to death threats to Adam and his family.”
Klete Keller
Keller, who won five Olympic swimming medals, including two relay golds, was charged January 13, according to court documents.
Keller was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and obstructing law enforcement engaged in official duties incident to civil disorder, according to documents filed in US District Court in Washington, DC.
It is unclear whether Keller is in custody. CNN has been unable to contact Keller for comment.
The court documents say Keller was identified by media outlets such as SwimSwam, which covers competitive swimming.
FBI Special Agent Matthew R. Barofsky wrote in court documents that he confirmed Keller’s identity by comparing riot photos to his Colorado driver’s license.
The photos from the Capitol also show Keller is wearing a US Olympic Team jacket and “appears to be one of the tallest individuals,” Barofsky writes in his statement of facts. Keller is 6 feet, 6 inches tall.
Cleveland Grover Meredith Jr.
Meredith arrived in Washington, DC, from Colorado on the day of the riot with hundreds of rounds of ammunition and an assault rifle — and he texted acquaintances on the next day that he wanted to shoot or run over Pelosi, authorities alleged in federal court records.
He was charged with making interstate threats to Pelosi and possession of an unregistered firearm.
In court documents, the FBI wrote that it found Meredith in a Washington hotel room after getting a tip about one of the texts. He had driven to Washington but arrived too late to attend the rally that preceded the riot, the court documents say.
Meredith had sent a text message on January 6 that said he was headed to Washington with “a s**t ton of … armor piercing ammo,” and another on January 7 saying that he was thinking of “putting a bullet in [Pelosi’s] noggin on Live TV,” according to court documents.
On January 7, he also texted about running Pelosi over, the court documents read. Meredith punctuated his messages with purple devil emojis, and used slurs for women to refer to Pelosi, authorities said.
At one point, after a recipient of the texts expressed concern, Meredith replied back, ‘Lol, jus havin fun,'” the court documents read.
Meredith let the FBI search his hotel room, phone, truck and its trailer. Inside the trailer, agents found two guns — a 9 mm Glock 19 pistol and a Tavor X95 assault-style rifle — and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, according to the court documents.
A federal judge ruled January 14 that Meredith should remain in jail as he awaits trial.
“If I had a more concerning threats case come before me, I don’t remember it,” said Magistrate Judge Michael Harvey of the DC District Court.
Meredith’s attorney said Meredith simply came to Washington to take part in a rally that he believed would be a repeat of others he thought were “a lot of fun.” The attorney argued that Meredith was joking in the texts about assassinating officials and could safely be tracked if he were released.
But Harvey rejected that and other arguments, including the defense attorney’s assertion that the law shouldn’t allow threats alone to result in detention.
“You took steps to come here … you drove all the way across the country from Colorado and you brought with you the means to make good on your threats,” the judge said after reading Meredith’s texts out loud.
Eric Gavelek Munchel
Munchel, of Tennessee, was identified as the man seen in photos and videos inside the Capitol wearing paramilitary gear and carrying plastic restraints, an item in a holster on his right hip, and a cell phone mounted on his chest with the camera facing outward, according to an affidavit in the criminal complaint filed against him in US District Court in Washington, DC.
He was arrested January 10 in Tennessee. He was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Munchel had been first stopped by law enforcement officers on January 6 because he was carrying a Taser while attending the rally, telling them it was for self-protection, according to his charging documents.
The FBI followed images of Munchel leaving the hotel without a face mask and carrying a drink as President Donald Trump was speaking to supporters, just before the assault on the Capitol.
Nick Ochs
Ochs, founder of Proud Boys Hawaii, was arrested January 7 at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, authorities said.
He was charged with one count of unlawful entry into restricted buildings or grounds and was released from jail January 11 ahead of his next court date, set for January 27.
In a charging document, investigators cited a tweeted photo and an interview he did with CNN as evidence.
“Hello from the Capital lol,” Ochs tweeted January 6, with an image of himself smoking a cigarette in the Capitol building.
“We didn’t have to break in. I just walked in and filmed,” Ochs told CNN in an interview the night of the riot. “There were thousands of people in there — they had no control of the situation. I didn’t get stopped or questioned.”
Ochs claimed in the interview with CNN that he was working as a professional journalist when he entered the Capitol, and that he didn’t go into any congressional offices or the chambers.
Robert Keith Packer
Packer, of Virginia, has been identified as a man who was inside the Capitol wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with the phrase “Camp Auschwitz,” according to three sources who spoke with CNN.
He was arrested on the morning of January 13 in Newport News, Virginia, on charges of entering the Capitol without permission and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, according to an arrest warrant.
Before his arrest, Packer had not responded to CNN’s requests for comment.
An image of the sweatshirt, bearing the name of the Nazi concentration camp where about 1.1 million people were killed during World War II, evoked shock and disbelief on social media. The bottom of the shirt stated, “Work brings freedom,” which is the rough translation of the phrase “Arbeit macht frei” that was on the camp’s gates.
Thomas Robertson and Jacob Fracker
Robertson and Fracker, two officers with Virginia’s Rocky Mount Police Department, were charged with entering restricted grounds and violent entry or disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, according to federal court documents released January 13.
Robertson and Fracker — off-duty at the time — posed for a photo in front of a statue of a Revolutionary War general in the Capitol during the riot, with one making an obscene hand sign, according to the federal complaint.
The two appear to have been the first law enforcement officers charged with criminal violations related to the riots.
They shared the photo with colleagues, and Robertson later posted it online, court records say.
The photo was taken after the Capitol was in lockdown, court documents read.
Prosecutors also found a social media post from Robertson that says he was “f***ing PROUD” of the photo, according to the complaint.
The complaint says that Fracker, in his own social media post, acknowledged the photo of him inside the Capitol and wrote “sorry I hate freedom?”
Robertson told CNN affiliate WSET that Capitol Police officers gave them water and asked them to stay within roped areas.
“There was absolutely no indication that we were anything but welcome to check out certain places,” Robertson told WSET. “We did not participate in any violence or property damage.”
The complaint cites reports that Robertson claimed he had been escorted “in” by Capitol police and that he made social posts that he had “attacked the government.”
Brad Rukstales
The CEO of Chicago-area marketing technology firm Cogensia, Rukstales breached the US Capitol and was arrested, authorities said.
He has been charged with “knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; or knowingly, with intent to impede government business or official functions, engaging in disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds; and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds,” the Justice Department said.
Rukstales has been terminated from his job, according to Cogensia, whose acting CEO noted, “Rukstales’ actions were inconsistent with the core values of Cogensia.”
Rukstales has apologized for what he called a “moment of extremely poor judgment,” according to a statement posted on Twitter. “It was the single worst personal decision of my life.”
“It was great to see a whole bunch of people together in the morning and hear the speeches, but it turned into chaos,” Rukstales told CNN affiliate WBBM, admitting he was inside the Capitol.
“I had nothing to do with charging anybody or anything, or any of that,” he said. “I was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
John Earle Sullivan
The Utah man who was shooting video when a woman was fatally shot by Capitol Police was arrested January 14, according to a statement from the Department of Justice.
Sullivan has been charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and interfering with law enforcement, according to a criminal complaint.
Sullivan entered the US Capitol through a broken window and shot about 50 minutes of video that documented his journey through the landmark as it was inundated with rioters, an arrest warrant alleges. He told law enforcement, others inside and news outlets in the hours and days that followed that “he was at the U.S. Capitol only to document and report,” the complaint says.
In one portion of his video, as rioters were hitting against a door inside the building, Sullivan “can be heard saying, ‘That’s what I’m sayin’, break that sh*t,'” the complaint alleges.
At another point, Sullivan “can be heard telling officers, ‘you are putting yourself in harm’s way,’ ‘the people have spoken,’ and ‘there are too many people, you gotta stand down, the people out there that tried to do that sh*t, they got hurt, I saw it, I’m caring about you,'” prosecutors allege.
Sullivan was scheduled to have his initial appearance in a Utah federal court on January 15, according to a Department of Justice website.
It is unclear from court records whether he has an attorney. CNN has reached out to the Utah federal public defender’s office but was told they had no information on him.
Andrew Williams
The Florida firefighter was arrested on suspicion of unlawfully entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, according to court documents, after a photo surfaced of him wearing a Trump 2020 hat and pointing at a placard for Pelosi inside the Capitol.
Williams, a firefighter-paramedic with the Sanford Fire Department, appeared in federal court January 12 and was released on a $25,000 signature bond, documents show.
Williams was placed on administrative leave without pay, according to a release from the fire department. Sanford Fire Chief Craig Radzak confirmed it was Williams in the photo and said Williams had been with the department as a firefighter-paramedic since October 2016.
Williams’ attorney blamed Trump and Capitol police for the attack.
“The President and the Capitol police encouraged despicable behavior,” Vince Citro told CNN affiliate WESH.
Kevin and Hunter Seefried
A man who was photographed holding a Confederate flag in the Capitol was arrested January 14 in Delaware in connection with the riot, as was his son, the Justice Department said.
Kevin Seefried and his son, Hunter Seefried, have been charged with entering or remaining on restricted grounds and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, according to a criminal complaint filed in US District Court in Washington, DC.
It was not immediately clear whether the two men had an attorney. CNN on January 14 attempted to reach the federal public defender in Wilmington, Delaware, to see whether it was representing them.
Reuters and Getty photographers captured images of a man carrying the flag as he walked in the building.
Both Seefrieds spoke to the FBI separately about being in the crowd that breached the Capitol, according to the criminal complaint.
Prosecutors alleged that the Seefrieds “entered the Senate Building through a broken window … Shortly thereafter, Kevin Seefried was photographed holding a Confederate battle flag inside the Capitol building,” the Justice Department said in a news release.
Kevin Seefried told the FBI he had brought the Confederate flag with him to Washington from his home in Delaware, where he normally displays it outside, according to the complaint.
The father-son duo had come to the Capitol on January 6 to hear Trump speak and they marched to the Capitol following a person with a bullhorn, they told the FBI, according to the complaint.
The FBI learned of the men’s names after one of Hunter Seefried’s coworkers reported he had bragged about being inside the Capitol building with his father, the complaint says. Hunter Seefried is alleged to have punched glass out of a window in the Capitol, according to the court documents.
