Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth surrendered to the authorities after participating in the pro-Trump rebellion on January 6 at the United States Capitol, while the Electoral College voted for the now elected President Joe Biden.
WishTV reports that the FBI confirmed that Schaffer surrendered around 3 pm Eastern Time.
“Jon Schaffer, Columbus, IN, was arrested in connection with the January 6 incident at the United States Capitol,” says an official FBI statement. “Schaffer faces 6 charges, including involvement in an act of physical violence in a Capitol building. Schaffer was reportedly among the protesters who sprayed the Capitol police with “bear spray”.
Photos inside the Capitol at the time of the turmoil emerged online from media photographers and journalists who were also there, covering the now historic attack.
A widely publicized photo, seen above, showed Schaffer as one of many participants and fans quickly recognized him as the founder of Iced Earth, promptly tagging authorities on Twitter while revealing his identity to them.
In the hours and days after the insurrection, the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI worked to identify dozens of perpetrators, sharing images of the afternoon’s violent outbreak online. Schaffer’s photo was among those images, where he was labeled a “person of interest” by the police for the crime of illegal entry. The same photo was used by the FBI, which then declared it a “most wanted” target.
The photo shows Schaffer in a blue sweatshirt, black fingerless gloves and a hat that says “Oath Keepers Lifetime Member”. The Oath Keepers is an extreme right-wing anti-government militia organization that was formed in 2009.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that regularly identifies hate groups and other domestic threats to civility, said the following from the Oath Keepers:
Oath Keepers, which claims tens of thousands of former law enforcement officers and military veterans as members, is one of the largest radical anti-government groups in the United States today. While it claims to be only defending the constitution, the entire organization is based on a set of unfounded conspiracy theories about the federal government’s work to destroy Americans’ freedoms.
Prior to the January 6 events, Indiana-based Schaffer was present in Washington DC at a pro-Trump rally on November 15, eight days after the presidential race was called up for Joe Biden. While there, he spoke on video with the German media Die Welt, about his reasons for attending and his thoughts on the potential for violence at the rally.
The complete transcript of the posted interview (via Blabbermouth) was reproduced in full below.
My name is Jon Schaffer. I’m from Indiana.
A group of bandits and criminals kidnapped this country a long time ago. Now they are taking a big step, and that is not going to happen. That’s right. These are globalists. These are the scum of the earth. These are the criminals who are behind all the fraudulent cash fees, they are behind all wars, they are behind all the shit, they are behind divide-and-conquer tactics, behind racial division. It’s all nonsense, everything rubbish.
People need to wake up and leave the matrix, because they are falling. They made the move. They are messing with the wrong people here – believe me. And we needed it to be opened that way – open fraud, open theft. Because now we see you, and you will fall. Mark my words.
If anyone wants to bring violence, I think many of us here are ready for that. We don’t want that, but if they do, we’ll respond to that – trust me.
I think that goes beyond President Trump. President Trump is a populist. He’s not the typical Republican. It is not the establishment. He’s not going to start wars all over the place, like they do. Which is funny – where are all the Democrats who went against the war?
There is so much hatred for Trump, it is just ridiculous. He’s been dealing with a criminal mafia that’s been in the shadows ruling the world, frankly, for a long time. They want to destroy our entire sovereignty and create a global government.
We are not having this. We can still do business together, countries can still be at peace, but we are not going to merge into some globalist communist system. This will not happen. There will be a lot of blood spilled, if any – trust me.
The American people will not accept this bullshit – once they understand what is really going on. So, this is where we are. Nobody wants that, but they are pushing us to a point where we have no choice.
We will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.