A woman turned her ex-boyfriend over to the FBI after he took a break during the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill to scold her in a text message, officials said.
According to a statement by FBI Special Agent Christopher Dillon, Richard Michetti’s girlfriend gave the authorities a series of texts that led to his arrest, including a 4:26 pm letter that said: “If you can’t see, the election has been stolen , you are an idiot.”
The Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, man appeared in a federal court in Philadelphia on Tuesday and was placed under house arrest until trial.
Court documents show several photos of Michetti in a Chicago White Sox baseball cap, inside the US Capitol, while pro-Trump supporters tried to prevent Congress from formally accepting the votes of the Electoral College that handed over the November election to President Joe Biden . The riot left five people dead, including Capitol policeman Brian Sicknick.
In one of the texts outlined in the documents, Michetti wrote: “This is our country, you think we live like kings because nobody sacrificed anything. The vote was fraud and the triumph won, but they do not audit the votes.”
At the end of the day, the ex-girlfriend, identified in court papers as the “witness” or “W1”, seemed to reject Michetti’s adherence to electoral fraud.
“I understand your point, but what I’m saying is … the election was rigged and everyone knows it,” Michetti sent a message at 6:04 pm, according to court documents. “All we wanted was an investigation, that’s all. And they couldn’t investigate the biggest presidential race in history with correspondence on ballots that everyone knows is easy to defraud.”
Michetti was accused of entering a restricted building, disorderly conduct and obstructing Congressional business. His lawyer was not immediately available for comment on Thursday.
A man who picked up a publicly listed phone number for Michetti initially identified himself as the suspect, asked for money to pay legal fees and said, “I think what is being done is horrible.”
“She is wrong, but everything is fine. Everything will work out later in the end. Everything will be fine,” said the man before hanging up.