Two Montana brothers accused of being one of the first ten people to storm the U.S. Capitol – before chasing a lone Black policeman through the building and wreaking havoc in the Senate Hall – have been charged.
Joshua Calvin Hughes and his brother, Jerod Wade Hughes, have been charged with a number of offenses, including obstructing an official process, destroying property and entering the Capitol without authorization. The brothers include more than 150 rioters charged with the January 6 uprising, including several members of far-right organizations and former law enforcement officials.
Prosecutors allege the brothers were among the initial mob who broke into the building through a window and advanced to the Senate floor. The couple confronted Capitol police officer Eugene Goodman, who was only trying to protect the chambers of the Senate and was caught on video heroically pushing one of the rioters and distracting the crowd. Eventually, Goodman is chased through the hallways of the building and up the stairs.
Goodman’s actions, which may have saved the lives of Vice President Mike Pence and other elected officials who were in the Senate, were filmed by HuffPost reporter Igor Bobic in a clip that was viewed more than 10 million times on Twitter is.
Goodman was promoted to acting deputy house sergeant on arms last week and accompanied Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, the first black woman to hold office, during the inauguration.
According to a criminal complaint, the brothers were seen in videos and recordings among a group ‘who broke windows and doors and forced the Capitol’. In one video, one can see someone breaking a window with a shield from the police before climbing through.
When Jerod Hughes entered, he saw him kick a door until the lock broke so that other rioters could enter the building.
After the interaction with Goodman, more police officers were called in for backup.
“Officers reported that they were too much to arrest the rioters, and therefore used their training to try to aggravate the situation by talking to individuals in an attempt to calm them down,” the complaint reads.
“Despite these efforts, officers were met with shouting and aggression. While reviewing a digital video recording of this quarrel, rioters may be heard shouting ‘this is our home’, ‘this is our America’ and ‘we are here for the corrupt government’. ”
During the altercation with police, one riot struck a fire extinguisher on the ground and burst into what was described as an ‘explosion’. The incident degenerated the situation and forced the crowd to leave the atrium of the Capitol, the complaint reads.
Prosecutors, however, said the Hughes brothers were not gone and eventually found the Senate floor.
“While Joshua Calvin Hughes, Jerod Wade Hughes and other rioters sat on the Senate floor in the Senators ‘chairs, they opened the Senators’ desks and reviewed sensitive material stored in them,” the complaint reads.
According to the complaint, the brothers turned themselves in to police on January 11 after seeing themselves on the news and believing they were wanted by the FBI.
A Facebook account matching Joshua Hughes’ name and location contains several photos of the Montana native in a MAGA hat. His “likes” include Tucker Carlson and Tomi Lahren, Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and former Fox News president.
According to the social media account, Hughes went to the University of Montana, where he studied health and human performance.