One Capitol riot may have planned a double international outing following the January 6 siege.
Ethan Nordean, a leader in the far-right, white supremacist organization Proud Boys, has obtained a valid U.S. passport issued to someone who looks like him and keeps it with his wife’s passport near his bed, new court documents read.
Prosecutors in a preliminary arrest for Nordean on Monday outlined the prosecutors over the months-long tactical preparations members of the Proud Boys made before the assault on the Capitol building earlier this year.
Nordean helped plan and raise funds for the group’s role in the Capitol uprising, which begins on November 4, court documents read.
After the leader of Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, was arrested a few days before the siege in DC, the organization nominated Nordean to take ‘ultimate leadership’ of the group’s activities and ‘forces of war’ on the day of the attack. ‘awarded to him, prosecutors said.
The night before the attack, prosecutors say the leader in Seattle instructed his fellow Proud Boys to wear dark clothing and avoid the colors usually associated with members of the extremist group.
On the day of the riots, Nordean, dressed in black and wearing a tactical vest, instructed his fellow members to use encrypted communications and the military equipment they had purchased. He then issued specific orders: “Divide into groups, try to break into the Capitol building from so many different points, and prevent the joint session of Congress from ratifying the results of the Electoral College,” the prosecutors said.
The 30-year-old was arrested weeks later, on February 3, for his role in planning and participating in the deadly attacks.
But Monday’s court documents reveal new details about Nordean’s planning before the siege and his arrest after the siege.
Prosecutors allege law enforcement officers discovered a valid U.S. passport issued to a Nordean appearance while carrying out a warrant. Federal agents allegedly found the passport on a dresser on the Nordean side of the bed in the master bedroom, as well as the passport of Nordean’s wife.
Officials did not find a passport for Nordean during their search.
Prosecutors described the ‘obvious statement’ for the dubious passport – that Nordean ‘at least had the opportunity to travel on the passport after leading a group of Proud Boys members in the Capitol riot, and to several of the Proud Boys members whose lead was arrested by the FBI … “
Instead, Nordean offered its own explanation for the document.
The Proud Boys leader told agents that the passport belonged to his wife’s ex-boyfriend, and that she kept the document as a souvenir after the relationship ended. His wife then allegedly took the souvenir passport with her when she and her husband, Nordean, moved into a new home, and she ‘just’ kept the passport with her own passport, on top of a piece of clothing [Nordean’s] side of the bed in the master bedroom. ‘
Prosecutors argued in court that the anecdote proves that Nordean is a serious aviation risk and that it is a ‘danger to the community’ and should therefore be detained before his trial.
“As previously noted, [Nordean] ” to obtain his release and still obtain such a passport, it will be extremely difficult to catch him and ensure that he is present for trial, ” the documentation reads.