On Monday, federal agents tracked down and arrested 26-year-old rebel Brian Gundersen for participating in the January 6 riots on Capitol Hill. The FBI identified him through the letterman jacket he wore when breaking into the federal building. Gundersen and the crowd of supporters of now ex-President Donald Trump hoped to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump claimed baselessly was stolen through an unprecedented national conspiracy of electoral fraud.
The FBI managed to discover Gundersen’s name thanks to the jacket that showed his school’s name – Byram Hills High School in North Castle Township, New York – and his old football jersey number. Informants allegedly helped confirm his identity by sending police officers several images of Gundersen wearing the same jacket elsewhere, including personalities from Fox News.
Gundersen initially denied being on Capitol Hill on January 6 and later said he had been pushed into the building by other protesters. However, his claims collapsed when authorities searched his phone and found a message he sent two days after the insurrection, which read: “We all invaded the US capital and tried to take over the government. We failed, but f * ck it. “
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The FBI also interviewed a “close personal” friend of Gundersen, who said he was “an avid supporter of former President Trump and a follower of commentator Nick Fuentes”.
Nick Fuentes is a 22-year-old anti-LGBTQ and anti-immigration podcaster who instructed Capitol rebels to destroy their phones to escape from prison. He was described as a white supremacist by the Anti-Defamation League and was banned from YouTube in February 2020 for violating the site’s hate speech video sharing policies.
North Carolina Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorn and other Republican lawmakers claimed that Democrats put “agitators” among the crowd to make Trump and his followers look bad. However, the FBI said there is no evidence to support these claims.
In addition, several arrested rebels said they were following Trump’s orders to prevent Democrats from “stealing” the election, a claim that was rejected for lack of evidence in nearly 87 Republican lawsuits and the Trump campaign.
The Capitol uprising left five dead, including a Capitol police officer. Dozens of other police officers were also injured in the insurrection, including one who was beaten by an American flag.
A Reuters photojournalist said he heard rebels inside the Capitol actively hunting Vice President Pence with the aim of killing him for refusing to oppose Biden’s election victory. At another point, protesters seized the weapon of Capitol Policeman Michael Fanone and encouraged his new owner to kill him with it.
The rebels also shattered windows when trying to access Congressional chambers, spilled feces in the hall and stole computer equipment, potentially a violation of national security.
Newsweek contacted the FBI for comment.