Two New York men, recently identified by the Justice Department as members of the Proud Boys, were assaulted with additional conspiracy charges on Friday in connection with the US Capitol riot on January 6.
Dominic Pezzola, 43, of Rochester, and William Pepe, 31, of Beacon, were indicted in federal court in the District of Columbia on charges of conspiracy, civil disorder, illegal entry into restricted buildings or grounds and disorderly and disturbing conduct in buildings restricted or motives.
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Pezzola was also accused of obstructing an official process, additional charges of civil disorder and assistance and complicity in civil disorder; theft of personal property from the United States; attack, resist or prevent certain officers; destruction of government property; and involvement in physical violence in buildings or restricted areas.
Pepe and Pezzola were originally charged with a criminal complaint and arrested on January 12 and 15, respectively, the District of Columbia prosecutor said in a statement on Friday.
Pepe was suspended from his $ 73,000-a-year job at the Metro Transit Authority after allegedly calling saying he was ill on January 6 to travel to Washington for the planned insurrection.
Pezzola seen inside the US Capitol on January 6. (Department of Justice)
Meanwhile, Pezzola, who prosecutors say he also goes by “Spaz”, “Spazzo” or “Spazzolini”, is now accused of having manuals for making digital bombs on a hard drive recovered from his Rochester home. He is known for lighting what appeared to be a cigar inside the Capitol while making a video of himself, telling the cameras that he was having “victory smoke”.
According to the indictment documents, the two men are members of the Proud Boys, a far-right nationalist group that describes itself as a “pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world; also known like Western chauvinists. “
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Proud Boys members often wear yellow and black, as well as other clothing adorned with logos and badges related to the Proud Boys, the Justice Department said. It is alleged that Pepe and Pezzola have tactical vests marked with the Proud Boys logo and participated in several Proud Boys meetings and protests.
Both men reportedly removed temporary metal barricades that restricted access to Capitol grounds and stole property from the Capitol Police. Pezzola is also accused of confronting a Capitol policeman who was trying to control the crowd by tearing off his riot shield.
Another video that was widely distributed shows Pezzola using that shield to break a window in the Capitol building, according to Friday’s indictment.
Pezzola is seen wearing a stolen police riot trying to break a US Capitol window on January 6. (Department of Justice)
Prosecutors are trying to keep Pezzola in jail until trial because his “offer to surrender to the police didn’t come until the FBI started knocking on doors in the Rochester, New York area, trying to reach family members,” the government wrote in a memo seeking remand.
FBI agents executing a search warrant at Pezzola’s residence on the day of his arrest retrieved a thumb drive that contained hundreds of .pdf files that provided “detailed instructions for making firearms, poisons and / or homemade explosives,” the memo said. .
Prosecutors allege that Pezzola stopped using his normal cell phone on January 9 and shaved his beard to hide his identity before FBI agents knocking on his family’s door in the Rochester area led him to agree to surrender to the police on 15 of January. . (Department of Justice)
A series entitled “Advanced improvised explosives”, had several series, including “Explosive dust” and “Incendiaries;” “The Box Tube MAC-11”, with the subtitle “The UltimateDIY Machine Pistol;” “Ragnar’s Great Book of Homemade Weapons;” and “The Advanced Anarchist’s Arsenal: Recipes for Arsonists and Improvised Explosives.”
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The government memo states: “All of the examples above contain detailed instructions on how to get the subject reflected in their titles and they are just four of the hundreds of .pdf files with similar titles on the recovered flash drive.”
A witness interviewed by the FBI said that members of a group, which included Pezzola, were talking about their participation in the attack on the Capitol and said they would have killed mayor Nancy Pelosi and former vice president Mike Pence if they had had the chance.
The group reportedly planned to return to DC for presidential inauguration on January 20, according to the memo.