Montana’s Joshua and Jerod Hughes were accused of being among the first 10 protesters who invaded the Capitol and ambushed officer Eugene Goodman.
FBI / Via assets.documentcloud.org
Screenshots of a video showing Joshua and Jerod Hughes leading a crowd of protesters chasing US Capitol Policeman Eugene Goodman.
Two Montana brothers who were seen in front of a crowd chasing a lone black officer during the deadly Capitol rebellion on January 6 now face several federal charges.
Joshua Calvin Hughes and Jerod Wade Hughes were accused of being among the first 10 protesters to break into the United States Capitol building and ambush officer Eugene Goodman, who was hailed as a hero for luring the aggressive mob away from the Senate, where former Vice President Mike Pence and other members of Congress were certifying the election results.
The brothers were charged Thursday with several crimes, including obstructing an official process, obstructing or interfering with law enforcement during civil unrest, entering the Capitol without authorization and with the intention of disrupting official business and destroying property. They could not be reached immediately for comment.
Four days after the riot, the two men presented themselves in person to the Helena Police Department in Montana, after seeing themselves in the press coverage and believing that they were wanted by the FBI, according to a criminal complaint.
After an FBI agent interviewed them, the brothers said they wanted to surrender. They provided their contact information to the FBI and were allowed to return home.
Surveillance videos and social media images documented how the brothers were supposed to be among the first group of protesters who broke windows and broke into the Capitol building at around 2:13 pm.
Once inside, Jerod Hughes was caught on video kicking a door until the lock was broken to allow other protesters to enter the Capitol, according to the complaint.
The brothers then allegedly made their way to the front of a crowd advancing to the Senate floor and joined Douglas Austin Jensen, who was facing Goodman, the only Capitol officer present at the time. Jensen was arrested and charged with his role in the riot.
Together with other protesters, the brothers refused to comply with Goodman’s repeated orders to leave the building and instead moved toward him “in a menacing manner,” the complaint said.
Prosecutors said Jensen was the main attacker, followed immediately by the Hughes brothers, who were seen chasing Goodman upstairs in a viral video by HuffPost reporter Igor Bobic.
This is the scary moment when protesters initially entered the building on the first floor and left the Senate Chamber.
@igorbobic / Twitter / Via Twitter: @igorbobic
On the second floor, Goodman positioned himself between the rioters and the Senate chamber, which had not yet been evacuated.
He realized that he could not prevent the crowd from invading the Senate floor on his own, so he urged protesters to follow him out of the Senate floor and into an adjacent corridor, the complaint said.
Once there, several other Capitol officers joined him and tried to repress members of the crowd, who were far more numerous. Unable to arrest so many protesters at once, the police reported that they tried to lessen the situation, but were met with “screams and aggression”, including shouts of “this is our home” and “we are here for the corrupt government”.
Officials reported that after they had managed to ease tensions with the crowd, protesters, including Joshua and Jerod Hughes, left the atrium and entered the Senate floor, which had already been evacuated.
The brothers and other protesters were seen sitting in senators’ chairs, opening their desks and reviewing sensitive material, the complaint said.
Officer Goodman, whose actions helped protect Pence and other members of Congress, was appointed acting Senate deputy sergeant and accompanied Vice President Kamala Harris in office last week.
The brothers are among at least 164 people facing federal charges for their roles in the Capitol insurrection on January 6, according to a database created by the George Washington University Program on Extremism.