At least 68 people were arrested and four died when a violent pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol Wednesday.
Dozens of those involved in the violent siege, labelled as ‘great patriots’ by Trump are yet to be identified and the FBI is now asking for the helping in finding them, tweeting they are ‘accepting tips & digital media depicting rioting & violence in the U.S. Capitol Building & surrounding area on January 6, 2021.’
‘If you have witnessed unlawful violent actions, we urge you to submit any information, photos, or videos that could be relevant,’ they added.
The FBI is seeking to identify individuals instigating violence in Washington, D.C. We are accepting tips and digital media depicting rioting or violence in and around the U.S. Capitol on January 6. If you have information, visit https://t.co/buMd8vYXzH.
— FBI (@FBI) January 7, 2021
The former Deputy Director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe, has said the bureau must make ‘identifying, arresting, and prosecuting every single person that you possibly can that entered that Capitol building yesterday’ a top priority.
But some of those who took part have already been identified online as members of far right groups, white nationalists, Neo-Nazis and supporters of conspiracy theory QAnon.
They are from states all over the country including Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Oregon.
The heavily-tattooed Trump supporter who sported horns, a fur hat and face paint and occupied the Senate dais moments after Vice President Mike Pence delivered his rebuke to Donald Trump has been revealed to be an Arizona-based QAnon believer who used to promote himself as a singer and actor.
Jake Angeli, 32, often known as the QAnon Shaman, has become 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.’
Dr Adam Rutherford tweeted: ‘I know this jamiroquoi wannabe muthaf***a is kinda funny but his tattoo is the symbol of Wotanism, which is a Nazi/Odin occult that believes Jews control the government, the Holocaust is exaggerated and champions the 14/88 slogan. He’s a real card-carrying Nazi.’
Angeli was at the front of a group of agitators who broke into the Capitol and faced off with DC police who desperately tried in vain to protect the establishment.
He then made his way into the Senate chamber where he was seen shouting and posing for photos.
Angeli flexed his left arm as he stood behind the dais in the Senate chamber where just moments earlier Vice President Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi had stood.
Angeli has become a prominent figure at pro-Trump rallies, always sporting his signature outfit of fur, horns, face paint and bare chest, where he has spouted off about QAnon conspiracy theories.
QAnon is the debunked extreme right wing conspiracy theory that claims Satan-worshipping pedophiles are plotting against Trump and are running a global child sex trafficking ring.
A Maryland marketing company on Thursday fired a pro Trump rioter who was seen walking through the Capitol with his work pass hanging around his neck.
Navistar Direct Marketing issued a statement Thursday which read: ‘Navistar Direct Marketing was made aware that a man wearing a Navistar company badge was seen inside the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 during the security breach.
‘After review of the photographic evidence the employee in question has been terminated for cause.’
The unidentified employee was pictured inside the Capitol building Wednesday.
‘While we support all employee’s right to peaceful, lawful exercise of free speech, any employee demonstrating dangerous conduct that endangers the health and safety of others will no longer have an employment opportunity with Navistar Direct Marketing,’ the company added.
Several images of the worker show him alongside Angeli.
Meanwhile, the insurrectionist who brazenly put his feet on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk in her office is now known to be a 60-year-old Arkansas man who claims he will run for Arkansas governor in 2022 and describes himself as a white nationalist online.
Richard ‘Bigo’ Barnett boasted outside the Capitol following the siege that he ‘wrote Pelosi a nasty note, put my feet up on her desk and scratched my balls’.
A photo from Pelosi’s office showed another threatening note on her desk reading ‘we will not back down’.
Meanwhile, in Pelosi’s office, Barnett posed for a photo reclining in the House Speaker’s chair before he later returned to the crowd of supporters outside and flashed a hand-written envelope he had looted.
Barnett later told the New York Times reporter Matthew Rosenberg he ‘fell’ into Pelosi’s office as he showed off the personalized envelope which was addressed to The Honorable Billy Long and had Pelosi’s signature on it.
‘I didn’t steal it,’ he claimed, saying he ‘left a quarter on her desk’.
‘And I left her a note on her desk that says ‘Nancy Bigo was here you bitch’.’
He also denied storming her office, claiming he politely knocked on her office door and was pushed in by other protesters.
‘I’ll probably be telling them this is what happened all the way to the DC jail,’ he said.
In a November post on Facebook, where he goes by the alias George Reincarnated Patton, Barnett claimed he will run for governor of Arkansas in 2022 saying he will ‘be running on the COMMON SENSE platform’.
He has also shared images of the Gadsden flag snake – which is regarded as a racist symbol – and boasts of being a white nationalist.
In several photos, he is seen posing with semi-automatic rifles.
Donald Trump signs the tattooed arm of Tim Gionet, an online personality known as Baked Alaska, in 2016
Another of the mob was Tim Gionet, an online personality known as Baked Alaska who is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a white nationalist who was involved in the far-right Charlottesville rally in 2017.
Gionet posted video that showed Trump supporters in ‘Make America Great Again’ and ‘God Bless Trump’ hats milling around and taking selfies with officers who calmly asked them to leave the premises.
The Trump supporters talked among themselves, laughed, and told the officers and each other: ‘This is only the beginning.’
A Republican state lawmaker from West Virginia joined the Trump-supporting crowd that stormed the US Capitol and live-streamed the dramatic moment in which he got past police to enter the front door of the congressional building.
Derrick Evans was recently elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates.
As MAGA supporters turned violent and forced their way into the Capitol, the 34-year-old lawmaker followed them as he live-streamed on Facebook while wearing a helmet.
After Donald Trump gave a speech near the White House in which he encouraged his supporters to march toward the US Capitol, Evans joined others and recorded the events on Facebook as they happened.
‘We’re in baby! We’re in, we’re in, Derrick Evans is in the Capitol!’ an excited Evans is heard saying.
He has now been slammed by both Democrats and Republicans in his home state for his actions, and threatened with censure by the West Virginia House Speaker.
Another looter who smiled for a photo as he made off with a lectern has been identified as Adam Johnson – a psychology graduate from Bradenton, Florida.
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.
Jon Schaffer, the guitarist in heavy metal band Iced Earth was also pictured breaching the Capitol.
Schaffer, 52, warned in an interview last year: ‘They will go down. They’re messing with the wrong people, believe me.’
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said the mob´s actions were ‘clearly consistent’ with the conspiratorial rhetoric of QAnon, the baseless belief that Trump has been secretly fighting deep state enemies and a cabal of Satan-worshipping cannibals operating a child sex trafficking ring.
‘QAnon has been calling on this kind of madness for years,’ Greenblatt said.