This photo presented by the Sheriff’s Office in Dallas County shows Garret Miller. Miller was arrested for allegedly participating in the U.S. Capitol storm this month and posting violent threats, including a call to assassinate New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Sheriff of Dallas County via AP
A Texas man accused of invading the Capitol and rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez threatened on Monday that he was following the orders of then-President Donald Trump when he joined a mob that stormed Congress on January 6.
Garret Miller also apologized to Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y. for writing “Assassinate AOC” in a Twitter post. He said he would be willing to testify to Congress or in a trial over the riot.
Miller, 34, also threatened a Capitol police officer on a social media account who shot dead a fellow rioter and said he intended to hug his neck with a nice rope, authorities said. .
The Richardson resident’s apology came when a federal judge in Dallas ordered that he be held without bail pending trial, after finding that he was both a danger to the community and an aviation risk, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.
MIller is one of dozens of people charged with participating in the riots, which began shortly after Trump held a rally outside the White House, urging supporters to put Congress under pressure to elect Joe Biden as to reject president.
In a statement issued by defense attorney Clinton Broden, Miller said he was motivated by Trump’s false allegations that he had been cheated out of re-election by the vote fraud, saying: “I am ashamed of my comments. “
“I was in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021, because I believed I was following the instructions of former President Trump and he was my president and commander-in-chief. His statements also led me to believe that the election was stolen from him.” Said Miller.
“Nevertheless, I fully acknowledge that Joe Biden is now the President of the United States and that the election is over. Donald Trump is no longer president and I will have no reason to continue to follow his lead.”
“Although I never intended to harm Congressman Ocasio-Cortez and also not to harm any members of the Capitol Police, I admit that my posts on social media were completely inappropriate. It was made at a time when “Donald Trump made me believe that a US election was stolen,” he said.
Miller said: “I want to publicly apologize to Congressman Ocasio-Cortez and the Capitol police officers. I have always supported law enforcement and I am ashamed of my comments.”
He also said in the statement that he was unarmed when he entered the Capitol and remained in his roundabout.
He said he left Washington and returned to Texas “immediately after President Trump asked us to go home.”
Miller, who was arrested last Wednesday, said he “until very recently” was not interested in politics, nor was he involved in it.
“Nevertheless, what Donald Trump said about the election really got me going and I felt I had to support him. I do realize that I am solely responsible for my actions and that there are no excuses for what I did,” he said. added.
“I come from a good and supportive family. My parents and brothers do not deserve the pain I caused them. I accept full responsibility for my actions and am willing to testify during any trial or congressional hearing,” Miller said. .
Miller is charged in the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, with: knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or site without lawful authority; violent trespassing and disorderly conduct on the Capitol site; obstruction or impediment to any official process; certain acts during civil disruption, and threats in trade between countries.
Ocasio-Cortez responded that Miller was accused of threatening her by writing on Twitter: “On the one hand you have to laugh, and on the other hand you have to know that the reason they are so polite is because they thought they were going to succeed. “
Ocasio-Cortez said she feared for her life during the riot and that members of Congress were ‘almost killed’.
“I did not know if I would make the end of the day alive, and not just in a general sense, but also in a very, very specific sense,” she said on an Instagram Live on January 12. video said. without giving more details.
Trump has been indicted by the House of Representatives for inciting the riot. He is due to be tried in the Senate next month, where he is facing the possibility of ever becoming president again.