A California man accused of taking government documents that he said were from Mitch McConnell’s desk and trying to steal an American Capitol flag was accused of connection to the deadly riot earlier this month.
Tommy Frederick Allan was arrested on charges of violent entry or disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, entering a restricted building or land and damaging or stealing federal property, according to a criminal action filed Jan. 20 in federal court in Washington, A.D
An arrest warrant describes how two people sent information to the FBI alleging that Allan was part of the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol. Authorities said the riot killed five people, including a Capitol police officer.
The first informant sent photos and videos from Allan’s Facebook page showing the suspect inside and outside the Capitol, according to the arrest warrant.
The second person said he was also aware of these photos and videos, but reported that Allan deleted his Facebook page. That same informant said that Allan destroyed the documents he took from the Capitol when he returned home to Rocklin, California.
After further investigation, the FBI found that Allan flew from Sacramento to Washington, DC on January 5 and returned to California on January 7.
Videos of the Capitol rebellion by journalists and security cameras show Allan, with an American flag in one hand, picks up a document from a table in the Senate House and keeps it in his back pocket, the arrest warrant said. A policeman prevented Allan from leaving with the flag, but he left with the newspapers, the videos show, according to the arrest warrant.
Another video, posted on someone else’s Facebook page, shows Allan holding the documents outside the Capitol, officials said in the warrant. One of the documents said “United States Senate, One Hundred Seventeenth Congress, Business Calendar, Wednesday, January 6, 2021.”
Allan tells the person recording the video that one of the papers was “a letter from Trump” and was “signed by Trump”, and a signature similar to that of Trump is visible on the paper, according to the FBI. He can also be heard saying he removed documents from the then-Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell’s desk.
When someone off-camera asks why he got the documents, he says he is a “taxpayer”, according to the warrant.
A public defender assigned to Allan said she and her client had no comment.
Allan appeared in court after his arrest on January 22 and was released, according to federal court documents. He is expected to return to court on Friday.
