Suspected members of military groups against the government and a U.S. Army reservist with alleged white supremacist convictions are among the latest suspects charged in the U.S. Capitol attack while prosecutors investigate rioters who used military-style tactics. Dozens of suspects now facing federal and local charges in the assault on January 6 in which five people were killed.
FBI
A Colorado man affiliated with the radical militia group Three Percenters has been charged by Washington, DC, with assaulting a federal officer, obstructing a federal process and other charges related to the siege. . Federal prosecutors have also charged three other people in Ohio and Indiana who are allegedly linked to another military group against the government, the ‘Oath Keepers’. The Indiana suspect was allegedly among a group that sprayed a U.S. police officer in the Capitol with bear spray.
Evidence against the suspects raises more questions about the coordination between the mob that stormed the Capitol, a law enforcement official told correspondent Catherine Herridge. Identifying rioters using military tactics is a priority for a task force of senior prosecutors in DC to investigate possible sedition charges, Report Herridge.
The three percent and the oath-takers are both part of an extremist movement that has increased since President Barack Obama took office in 2008, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The groups promote the idea that the government plans to take away the rights of American citizens and must be resisted.
On Saturday, federal investigators charged an Ohio man and woman, according to them, with a group of about 8-10 people wearing paramilitary equipment and seeing Oath Keepers equipment on a video storming the Capitol. According to a federal criminal complaint, the group moved “in an organized and rehearsed manner” and gathered in front of a crowd around a door to the Capitol building.
38-year-old Jessica Watkins and 50-year-old Donovan Crowl of Champaign County, Ohio, are facing charges including unlawful access to a restricted area, violent entry and disorderly conduct and obstruction of an official process. According to a criminal complaint, Watkins identifies herself on the social media site Parler as “CO [commanding officer] of the Ohio State Regular Militia “- a share paid to the Oath Watchers.
On January 6, it is alleged that Watkins posted a video on Parler with the caption: “Yes. We stormed the Capitol today. Teargassed, the whole, 9. We invaded the Rotunda. It even reached the Senate. The news is lying (even Fox) about the historical events we have created today. ‘
Watkins also allegedly confirmed that she was leading other Oath Keepers during the siege and posted another image on Parler of a man in paramilitary equipment with an Oath Keepers patch on his arm. According to the complaint, the caption read: “One of my guys at the Stop the Steal Rally today. #Stopthesteal #stormthecapitol #athathekeepers #ohiomilitia.” In another criminal complaint, federal investigators identified the man in the photo as Crowl, who they say is also connected to the Ohio Government Militia.
FBI
According to the complaints, Watkins and Crowl later spoke to the media about their meetings with the Capitol police. In an interview with the Ohio Capital Journal on Jan. 13, Watkins said her group did not destroy anything and was respectful of Capitol Hill police “until they attacked us. Then we stopped and drew the line.” According to the complaint, Crowl said the next day that he told the New Yorker that his intentions were peaceful and “we protected the f ****** Capitol Hill police.”
Jon Ryan Schaffer of Columbus, Indiana, has linked a suspect to Oath Keepers, a blue sweatshirt with a hood under a tactical vest with a baseball cap that reads ‘Oath Keepers Lifetime Member’, according to a federal criminal complaint that Was submitted on Saturday. He was seen on photos and surveillance videos with a bear spray and verbal altercations with Capitol police officers in the Capitol building.
According to the complaint, Schaffer, identified by tipsters who knew him as the frontman of a heavy metal group from Indiana. In an interview in 2017, Schaffer identified himself as an ‘anarchist’, calling the federal government a ‘criminal enterprise’ and claiming that the 2016 presidential election was ‘knee-jerk’. During another interview during the ‘Million MAGA March’ in November in DC, Schaffer said: ‘A group of thugs and criminals have long since hijacked this country. And now they’re making their big move, and it’s not going to happen … People need to wake up and jump out of the Matrix, because they’re going down. They made the move, they’re dealing with the wrong people here, trust me on that. ‘
On Sunday, a man affiliated with the group “Three Percent” was also charged. Based on his social media posts, 24-year-old Robert Gieswein of Woodland Park, Colorado, runs a private paramilitary training group called Woodland Wild Dogs. A federal complaint filed Sunday said Gieswein was wearing a distinctive military outfit during the riot – a camouflage shirt under a military-style reinforced vest with a “Woodland Wild Dogs” patch, a helmet-style helmet marked with orange band and spots, glasses and a black camo backpack. Gieswein allegedly sprayed an unidentified agent on federal officers outside the Capitol and encouraged other rioters when they broke a window to the building. After entering through the broken window, he is seen according to the complaint in which he carries a baseball bat and a spray tube that puts his cellphone on his vest and points outwards.
Gieswein was pictured next to another suspect charged Sunday, Dominic Pezzola, who was seen wearing a “Proud Boys” shirt. According to a witness, Pezzola, known to witnesses as ‘Spaz’, allegedly said the rioters would have killed people, including US House President Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence if they had the chance.
FBI
Among the accused on Sunday was Timothy Louis Hale-Cusanelli of Colts Neck, New Jersey, a member of the U.S. Army Reserve and a contractor at Naval Weapons Station Earle, where he maintains a ‘secret’ security clearance and access to a variety of ammunition. , according to a federal complaint. A confidential source who worked with an NCIS agent said Hale-Cusanelli admitted he was in the Capitol during the riot, said the charge and showed the source videos of himself making harassing and derogatory statements to officers .
The source told the NCIS agent that Hale-Cusanelli is a recognized white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer who posts extreme political opinion videos on YouTube. The source recorded a conversation on January 14 during which Hale-Cusanelli admitted that he had entered the Capitol and encouraged other members of the mob to vote with a voice and handseine. He apparently said that if they had more men, they could take the whole building.
Hale-Cusanelli also allegedly admitted to taking a flag and flagpole that he had observed another riotous throw ‘like a spear’ at a Capitol police officer, describing it as a ‘murder weapon’ and said he intended to destroy it. Hale-Cusanelli is charged with charges of including violent intrusion and disorderly conduct and obstruction of a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder.
Those charged in the riot last week include two Virginia police officers who did not serve, one of whom, Jacob Fracker, is a corporal in the Virginia National Guard. The other, Thomas Robertson, apparently served the National Guard and the U.S. Army Reserves at various times, although the Army is still trying to determine its current status.
Catherine Herridge and Clare Hymes contributed to this report.