After the chaotic and violent day at the Capitol, Camargo returned to his home in Deerfield Beach, according to an FBI testimony. When an FBI agent contacted him over the phone, Camargo stopped cooperating and questioned the agent’s loyalty to the constitution, the lawsuit said.
Camargo later saw policemen at his home and took off, Attorney General Jeffrey Poulin said during a bail hearing on Thursday at the US District Court in Washington.
“He admitted to the police officer when he was arrested that when we saw police officers at his residence who were there to carry out a search warrant, he drove in the other direction,” said Poulin. “He drove directly to Washington, DC … His response to this information was to return to the crime scene on another politically charged day, where there was a growing concern for further action.”
Judge Zia Faruqui said that Camargo’s actions created much risk that he would not appear in court. “He was, at the very least, trying to escape the charge. At worst, he could be doing something worse than that, ”said Faruqui.
Faruqui said the attack on the Capitol occurred “at the crucial moment of the foundation of our democracy” and said that Camargo’s return to Washington suggests that he may feel “obliged” to take further measures against the activities of the federal government.
Camargo is accused of violating the federal Anti-Riot Law, illegal entry into a restricted building and disorderly conduct.
Meanwhile, a bail hearing expected Thursday for a New Mexico county commissioner accused of the Capitol riot was canceled after he refused to undergo a coronavirus test.
Couy Griffin, 47, the leader of the Cowboys for Trump, was arrested on Sunday in Washington after returning to the city after the January 6 riots.
Lawsuits related to his case were delayed on Thursday and difficult to follow through a telephone line that provides the only public access to the session.
Faruqui and a Griffin family lawyer indicated that the Otero County Commissioner and former Disneyland Paris cowboy owned Covid-19 or was suspected of having it. He was asked to take a test and refused, so he could not be moved from an isolation unit to a location where prison officials facilitate video calls.
“We need to make sure that he is receiving fair treatment here,” said Faruqui. “I am concerned that he is not receiving this because of his unwillingness to speak to the court. … I don’t like the idea of him languishing there while we make a determination. “
Prosecutors asked that Griffin also be kept in prison until trial. They cite a series of provocative and inflammatory comments he made, including declaring that “the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat”. He later qualified his statement to say that it referred only politically and not physically.
During a county commission meeting in New Mexico last week, Griffin said he planned to bring weapons when he returned to Washington for possession.
“I’m going out tonight or tomorrow. I have a big boy rifle .357 Henry. . . that I put in the trunk of my car and I have a .357 single-action revolver. . . that I’ll have under the front seat on my right side, ”said Griffin. “I will embrace my Second Amendment, I will maintain my right to bear arms, my vehicle is an extension of my home with respect to the constitution law and I have the right to have these firearms in my car.”
It is unclear whether Griffin really had guns with him when he was arrested on Sunday.
Faruqui rescheduled Griffin’s bail hearing for February 1.
Separately, another judge agreed on Thursday to release an Iowa man who allegedly led a crowd chasing US Capitol police, Eugene Goodman, upstairs outside the Senate chamber during the January 6 riot.
Doug Jensen, 41, of Des Moines, is accused of violating the Anti-Riot Act, as well as of five misdemeanors related to the attack on the Capitol.
Prosecutors asked US magistrate Judge Celeste Bremer to arrest Jensen without bail while awaiting trial, but Bremer refused. Jensen, who is reportedly a devoted follower of the QAnon conspiracy theory and wore a “Q” sweatshirt during the attack on the Capitol, was trying to become a movement “poster boy”, Bremer said.
In an order issued on Thursday, the judge – who also lives in Des Moines – said she believed putting Jensen under house arrest with electronic monitoring would be adequate to protect the community and ensure that he appears on trial.
However, Bremer said Jensen will remain in an Iowa prison until next Wednesday so prosecutors can appeal his decision.
Prosecutors have already filed two appeals on bail issues and have been ordered to temporarily suspend these releases.