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A Massachusetts man has been arrested and charged with taking part within the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol, after investigators stated he had recorded a video on his approach there, predicting “mayhem, chaos and pandemonium” with a view to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election.
The man, Thomas J. Method, 57, of Framingham, Mass., has been charged with obstruction of an official continuing, which is a felony, in response to federal prosecutors. He additionally faces misdemeanor costs, together with getting into or remaining in a restricted space with out authority and disorderly conduct, in response to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
Mr. Method was arrested on Wednesday in Framingham, the assertion stated. It was not instantly clear whether or not he had a lawyer.
Investigators stated Mr. Method’s phrases, texts, pictures and a video posted on-line led to the costs in opposition to him.
According to the legal grievance and warrant, whereas touring from Massachusetts to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, he made a “video manifesto,” by which he stated he hoped “the power in numbers and this motion will get extra senators on board, and we are able to overthrow this.”
“I don’t care what occurs so long as Trump maintains his presidency,” Mr. Method stated within the video, in response to the doc. “I’ve a sense it’s going to be mayhem, chaos and pandemonium.”
During the investigation, the grievance stated, Mr. Method’s cellphone and e-mail utilization was traced to areas across the Capitol, together with contained in the constructing. “I used to be there,” he later stated, when requested by an investigator, in response to the charging doc.
Investigators discovered video footage displaying a person recognized as Mr. Method getting into the Capitol constructing amongst what they referred to as a “riotous crowd,” which was in search of to overturn the certification means of the 2020 vote. They additionally discovered {a photograph} he took of himself standing in entrance of the Landing of Columbus, an oil portray depicting Christopher Columbus that was put in within the Capitol rotunda in 1847.
The doc additionally stated that Mr. Method later admitted to attending the “Stop the Steal” rally earlier than marching to the Capitol, the place he stated he thought individuals had been being allowed to enter. He stated if he had recognized there was going to be violence he wouldn’t have gone to the Capitol, the doc says.
More than 1,313 individuals have been charged from practically all 50 states for crimes associated to the mob assault on the Capitol in help of former President Donald J. Trump. More than 469 of them have been charged with assaulting or impeding regulation enforcement, a felony, the U.S. lawyer’s workplace stated.
More than 720 individuals have acquired sentences to this point, and greater than 450 of them had been sentenced to durations of incarceration, starting from a handful of days to greater than 20 years.
Prosecutors have referred to as the inquiry the most important within the historical past of the Justice Department.
