The stay-at-home dad who looted and smiled for a photo as he made off with a lectern has been arrested in Florida, a day before the QAnon Shaman was also detained for his role in Wednesday’s assault on the Capitol.
Adam Johnson, 36, was arrested by federal marshals in Florida on Friday and is currently being held at the Pinellas County Jail, according to arrest records.
The Parrish, Florida, resident was charged with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or ground without lawful authority, one count of theft of government property and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Jacob Anthony Chansley, the 33-year-old heavily-tattooed Trump supporter who sported horns, a fur hat and face paint as he occupied the Senate dais, was also arrested on Saturday.
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.
According to court documents, Chansley called the FBI field office in Washington and confirmed to an agent that ‘he was the male in the face paint and headdress in the Vice President’s chair in the Senate.’
Chansley told the agent that he and other ‘patriots’ had come from Arizona at the request of the President that all ‘patriots’ come to D.C. on Jan 6, the documents state.
Angeli often known as the QAnon Shaman, became a fixture at recent right-wing rallies while decked out in his signature attire.
One of his tattoos is said to show the symbol of Wotanism, an acronym for ‘Will of the Aryan Nation.’
Johnson, a psychology graduate turned furniture maker from Bradenton, Florida, was seen parading through the Capitol on Wednesday with Pelosi’s lectern.
Johnson is a stay-at-home dad to five children; his wife is a doctor, according to The Bradenton Herald.
He has previously faced possession of marijuana and violation of probation charges, the paper reports.
Photos on his now-deleted social media accounts show him posing next to a sign reading ‘closed to all tours’ inside the building.
Johnson, who was pictured inside the Capitol making off with a lectern, appears to have removed his social media platforms in the aftermath of the siege.
Court documents reveal that the FBI consulted with members of the Speaker’s staff to determine that the lectern was stored in the Speaker’s Suite, located under a staircase to the third floor on the House side of the building.
The lectern was found on January 7 by a member of the Senate staff in the Red corridor of the Senate wing off the Rotunda in the Capitol building. I
t is worth more than $1,000, according to the House of Representatives’ curator.
In addition to the two, a newly sworn-in West Virginia delegate, the CEO of a Chicago data analytics company and a man sentenced to eight years for attempted murder are among 16 people federally charged so far following Wednesday’s riots at the Capitol.
The Justice Department named in a conference call on Friday 13 people charged in the unrest, and Republican West Virginia State House member Derrick Evans, 35, was later charged.
Evans was 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. Evans was taken into custody Friday.
They also include a handyman whose daughter claimed had been ‘radicalized’ and a white supremacist who broke into Nancy Pelosi’s office to sit at her desk.
Richard Barnett, 60, was pictured putting his feet up on her desk.
Barnett, who proudly referred to himself as a white nationalist on social media, was charged with unlawful entry. He was taken into custody at his home in Little Rock, Arkansas.
It’s unclear where he now is or if he’ll be extradited but he is in custody.
Among them was also Michael Curzio, of Summerfield, Florida, who spent eight years in prison for attempted murder.
Curzio was released in February 2019.
Of the 13 – 11 men, two women – ten are charged with entering a restricted public building and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
The 13 included a Chicago CEO, Brad Rukstales, who issued a groveling apology for his ‘extremely poor judgement’ in joining in the chaos.
He said it was the ‘single worst decision of my life’.
Douglas Sweet from Hudgins, Virginia, was held in jail for eight hours and then released.
He told WKTR he traveled to Washington because ‘Trump asked all the patriots to show up, so I did.’
He said: ‘I didn’t go with any malice or intention of malice of those that committed those the fights – the tear gas and just, you know, throwing stuff at police.
‘That wasn’t in my game plan at all.’
Asked if he has any regret, being involved in a riot where four people died, Sweet said: ‘From our actions, come reaction.’
Sweet had also attended the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, his daughter, Robyn Sweet, told BuzzFeed News on Thursday.
Robyn said that her father had disowned her because she fought against racism and bigotry while he had been ‘radicalized by conspiracy underground websites and groups.’
‘I am completely ashamed and disgusted of him,’ Robyn said of her father’s actions at the Capitol.
Those charged also include Cleveland Meredith, charged with making threats against Nancy Pelosi; Lonnie Coffman, of Alabama, charged with firearms and explosives offenses and Christopher Alberts, of Maryland, who is charged with carrying a firearm at the Capitol.
Evans, the politician, broadcast his participation in a Facebook Live video he took of himself as he entered the Capitol building during the riots, shouting: ‘We’re in! We’re in! Derrick Evans is in the Capitol!’
The affidavit, obtained by the news station, notes that during the live video, Evans can also be heard chanting to people in the doorway and the front of the of the crowd of rioters saying, ‘Move! Move! Move!’
FBI agents were spotted arriving at Evans home in Prichard, West Virginia, Friday afternoon and taking him into custody.
As Evans, wearing a Tolsia Rebels high school sweat suit, was escorted to a car and driven away by authorities, a woman emerged from the house and told WSAZ that she was his grandmother.
She said that ‘He’s a fine man,’ referring to Evans.
‘And thank you, Mr. Trump, for invoking a riot at the White House,’ she added.