The new charges on Thursday arrested two people who allegedly injured police officers and a man who shocked many across the country carrying a Confederacy flag inside the Capitol, where he was widely photographed.
“We know who you are if you’re there, and FBI agents are coming to look for you,” he said during an inaugural security briefing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s headquarters in Washington.
The two Seefrieds were accused on Thursday of entering restricted grounds and violent entry or disorderly conduct within the Capitol, according to a criminal complaint in the DC District Court. Hunter Seefried is also accused of drilling a glass window on the Capitol, according to court records.
Kevin Seefried was one of the most wanted people portrayed in the riot while the FBI asked the public for tips last week.
The images of him carrying the Confederate battle flag on the Capitol deserved his own “information search” pamphlet as the FBI tried to identify him; many other viral photos from January 6 were not highlighted as prominently.
Seefried’s alleged violation was the first time that the Confederacy’s battle flag, which persists as a symbol of racism and white supremacy in modern America, has been within the United States Capitol. During the Civil War, Confederate soldiers were unable to penetrate Washington.
Violence against police
Two men were separately charged for incidents of violence against the police during the siege of the Capitol, marking the first notable federal charges for alleged crimes against the police.
Robert Sanford was arrested Thursday in Pennsylvania and accused of shooting a fire extinguisher that hit three policemen in the head while they were in the crowd on a Capitol terrace. Sanford now faces four federal criminal charges related to the riot, including assaulting, resisting or impeding police officers on duty.
Court documents and footage of the scene led prosecutors to claim that Sanford had thrown a red object, which appeared to be a fire extinguisher, in the direction of the police, striking someone who wore a helmet. The extinguisher then ricocheted off, hitting two other policemen, one of whom had no helmet.
Another man – Peter Francis Stager, from Arkansas – faces a criminal charge for allegedly beating a uniformed police officer. He allegedly used a flagpole with an American flag to hit the policeman while he was lying on the ground surrounded by the crowd, according to DC district court records.
A video also showed Stager saying that “death is the remedy” for people on Capitol Hill, prosecutors said.
There are no known arrests related to the death of Capitol Policeman Brian Sicknick at this time.
Man accused of threatening Pelosi will stay in prison
“If I had a more worrying threat case coming before me, I don’t remember,” DC District Court Judge Michael Harvey said on Thursday during an hour-long hearing on whether Meredith should remain in detention. On Wednesday, the judge questioned whether the Justice Department had done enough to deal with the need to keep Meredith in prison, as he is now being held on two relatively minor charges.
Meredith reportedly drove from Colorado to Washington the day before Trump’s rally, with more than 2,500 rounds of ammunition and an assault rifle. He reportedly texted acquaintances saying he wanted to shoot or run over Pelosi and shoot Mayor Muriel Bowser, according to court records. He also discussed “wartime” and days of bloodshed after Trump’s rally, officials said. He currently faces two charges for writing threats and possession of unregistered firearms and ammunition, according to court documents.
Prosecutors noted at the hearing on Thursday that they believed Meredith was a follower of QAnon and that he headbutted someone else in Washington last week in a traffic accident.
Harvey rejected arguments that Meredith could not be legally detained or that he could be released and monitored and that he would not be a danger.
Safety planning and warnings continue
New York Police Department subcommittee John Miller warned in a conference call on Thursday that the temperature is high as far as the intelligence surrounding the opening is concerned. There are no credible threats to New York City, Miller said.
“Nothing compares to any previous threats; we have never had Americans fighting Americans on the streets of the country’s capital, probably since the Civil War,” said Miller.
Miller said the rioters were successful in entering the Capitol, indicating that it was a “significant milestone” for the movement.
But he added that there are indications that arrests made across the country may have hampered this movement.
A recurring theme in the descriptions of allegations against federal defendants is how many voluntarily surrendered to police authorities after being identified as part of the melee and talked to the authorities about their participation.
A man arrested on Thursday in Alabama, Joshua Matthew Black, for example, talked about shedding blood in the Senate floor in the name of Jesus – while he himself was bleeding from the cheek, according to his criminal prosecution papers and images of him. that day and then.
Speaking to the FBI later, he told them that he had achieved his goal.
Wray, the FBI director, said at an opening security briefing at FEMA on Thursday that the bureau was monitoring all leads received, from calls for armed protests to other threats that emerged on January 6.
He noted that the FBI has some “confidence” in its preparation and security for President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration next week.
Evan Perez, Shimon Prokupecz, Allison Malloy and Paul Murphy of CNN contributed to this report.