A UCLA student who posted visions of white supremacy online and founded an ultra-right organization on campus was accused of federal crimes for his alleged role in the January 6 US Capitol insurrection.
The student, Christian Secor, was captured on video sitting in the chair that Vice President Mike Pence hurriedly vacated after a pro-Trump crowd stormed the Capitol, according to the FBI.
FBI agents, assisted by a SWAT team, arrested Secor, 22, at his Costa Mesa home on Tuesday morning after searching the home, said Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokesman.
Federal prosecutors in Washington, DC, accused Secor of assaulting or resisting a police officer, violent entry and stay on restricted terrain, civil unrest and obstruction of an official process.
During a federal court hearing in Orange County on Tuesday, a US magistrate ordered Secor to be detained without bail.
Secor was captured on video and still images with a red Make America Great Again hat occupying the chair where Pence sat while presiding over Senate certification for electoral college votes, according to a statement by FBI special agent Benjamin Elliott.
Christian Secor was captured by a video camera inside the Senate chambers, sitting in the chair of the President of the Bureau on January 6, the FBI said.
(US District Court)
At least 11 informants identified Secor as the man in the video and still images, standing in the Senate floor or on the dais seated in Pence’s chair.
In some images, the man is seen carrying a large blue flag “America First” on the floor of the Senate.
After the video of the scene appeared on the New Yorker website, investigators obtained video from Secor’s security camera in the corridors, in the Rotunda area and on the Senate floor, the statement said.
Moments earlier, Secor was with a crowd forcing his way through at least three policemen and through a set of double doors to the Capitol, Elliott said in a sworn statement.
“As a result of Secor and others pushing the double doors … the doors opened and dozens of additional protesters flooded the building,” wrote Elliott. “Capitol police were pushed around by the crowd, sometimes trapped between the doors and the crowd, and eventually pushed out of the way of the approaching crowd.”
The agents also found that Secor had broadcast live from Capitol using DLive, a video streaming service developed with blockchain technology.
In the live broadcast, Secor uses the nickname Scuffed Elliot Rodger, an apparent reference to the man who killed six people in Isla Vista, California in 2014 and became a hero for “incels” – a marginal group of sexually frustrated men who blame women for their misery and often advocate violence against them.
The FBI said it also found images of Secor at a rally in Huntington Beach wearing the same black Arcteryx jacket as the man in the Capitol images.
Christian Secor was seen on a video camera inside Senate chambers on January 6, the FBI said.
(US District Court)
An informant told the FBI that after the insurrection, Secor moved back in with his mother, got rid of his cell phone and boasted that “he would not be caught for his involvement in the United States Capitol.”
FBI agents placed Secor under surveillance from January 25 to 28 before arresting him.
At UCLA last year, Secor was repeatedly accused of inciting racism with comments and tweets about Jewish immigrants and students, according to the testimony.
The Twitter account @fullautonat, owned by someone named Christian “Laser Eyes” Secor, calls fascism “epic” and “values the Charlottsville tiki torch march in 2017” in Virginia, which featured an anti-Semitic chant, according to the testimony.
The tweets also praise a well-known extremist and claim that “we support nationalism everywhere” before denouncing “Israel is influencing our policy,” said the statement.
Secor founded a student group called America First Bruins, according to the testimony. A UCLA student told FBI agents that Secor invited “white nationalists” to the campus.
Without naming Secor, a group of conservative students, Bruin’s Republicans, said on Tuesday that he banned someone a year ago for “improper behavior” who was later arrested in connection with the Capitol raid.
A UCLA spokesman did not confirm that Secor was a student at the school, saying that “information about that person is not available to the public”.
“What I can say is that UCLA believes that the January 6 attack on the Capitol was an attack on our democracy,” said Bill Kisliuk, director of media relations, in a written statement. “As an institution, UCLA is committed to mutual respect, making evidence-based decisions and using rational debate – not physical violence.
America First Bruins is not a student organization registered with UCLA, added Kisliuk.
According to the FBI testimony, Secor can be affiliated with the Groypers and was seen in a photo on the Capitol with someone widely known as a member of the white supremacy group.
The “America First” flag that Secor carried represents a subgroup of Groypers led by ultra-rightist influencer Nick Fuentes, said Brian Levin, executive director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino.
“Groypers do not support other conservatives, including Ben Shapiro,” said Levin, referring to the writer whose appearances on UC campuses sparked protests. “They deny or downplay the Holocaust. The America First brand is renamed white nationalism. “
Levin said the number and seriousness of the charges against Secor suggest that prosecutors consider him a high-value target.
Secor is the second resident of Orange County and at least the 12th Californian accused of connection with the Capitol violation that resulted in the death of Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick and the fatal shooting of a rioter by the police.
Area residents arrested by federal agents include a Beverly Hills beautician, a Beverly Hills concierge doctor, an aspiring actor and the grandson of the former mayor of Glendora – some of whom were known for their loyalty to Trump and opposition to orders pandemic.