A newly-elected local politician is among several high-profile figures identified within a group of rioters who stormed the United States Capitol, as law enforcement asks the public to help locate perpetrators.
Hundreds of pro-Donald Trump supporters threw Washington DC into crisis on Wednesday local time, storming the Capitol building in a bid to halt the certification of Electoral College ballots that would clear the way for President-Elect Joe Biden to take control of the White House on 20 January.
The insurgents, which Mr Biden has since labelled “domestic terrorists”, were able to get past law enforcement and enter the government building, occupying offices and the Senate floor, forcing the nation’s federal leaders to flee. Four people died as a result of the unrest.
During the incident, Derrick Evans, a West Virginia state delegate who goes by Derrick Evans – The Activist on Facebook, live-streamed himself entering the building and wandering through its halls.
The stream was later deleted from his social media, but clips of the video are still available online.
In one clip, posted to Reddit, Mr Evans can be heard chanting “our house”, “Trump” and “let’s go” as the mob breaks through the Capitol’s doors. Once inside, he can be heard yelling “we’re in” before telling the crowd, “no vandalising, these are artefacts”.
In a statement posted to Facebook, Mr Evans said he had travelled to Washington DC as an “independent member of the media to film history”.
“I want to assure you that I did not have any negative interactions with law enforcement,” he wrote, “nor did I participate in any destruction that may have occurred.”
More than 40,000 people have since signed a petition calling for him to be removed from his seat for “going against the constitution and rule of law” and two of his West Virginia colleagues have called for his resignation.
State delegate Derrick Evans posted a live stream to his social media showing him storming the Capitol on Thursday. It has since been deleted.
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Mr Evans is among many rioters who posted images and videos of their actions on social media.
Elijah Schaffer, who identifies as a national reporter for The Blaze – a conservative media publisher – tweeted on Thursday that he was “not personally involved” in the riot, despite an earlier tweet claiming he was inside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office “with thousands of revolutionaries”.
The photo accompanying the now-deleted tweet, which was screenshotted and shared on social media, appears to show Ms Pelosi’s desk and computer.
“To put in perspective how quickly staff evacuated, emails are still on the screen alongside a federal alert warning members of the current revolution,” he wrote. He later tweeted that he holds a Congressional press pass and “police did not have a problem with me reporting on the events”.
Another rioter photographed with his feet on Ms Pelosi’s desk gave an interview to the New York Times bragging about his actions, identifying himself as 60-year-old Richard Barnett and showing off an envelope he stole from her office.
Richard Barnett, 60, bragged to the New York Times about breaking into Nancy Pelosi’s office.
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A number of people connected to far-right groups and conspiracy movements were also easily identifiable, including Jake Angeli – known online as the ‘Q Shaman’ – who was photographed inside the Capitol building wearing a distinctive horned helmet.
Mr Angeli is an adherent of the fringe QAnon conspiracy theory, which touts the existence of, among other things, an international paedophile ring spearheaded by the “global elite”. Since its inception in late 2017, the movement has developed to encompass a wide range of seemingly unrelated, often anti-Semitic, conspiracies.
Anthime ‘Tim’ Gione, a neo-Nazi conspiracist live-streamer known online as Baked Alaska, was also quickly identified online after he posted a live stream of his involvement in the riot.
Mr Gione was involved in the 2017 Charlottesville rally and frequently promotes white supremacist ideology online.
Matt Browning, a former undercover Arizona police officer and founder of the Skinhead Intelligence Network (SIN), which seeks to share intel about right-wing extremism across international borders, told SBS News he had been monitoring Mr Angeli and Mr Gione, who are both from his home state.
“If you just looked at Jake, the horn guy, he doesn’t look dangerous, he doesn’t look violent,” he said.
“However, the things that he says and the things that he does and the crowd that he brings sparks violence.
“The people that they are with are armed … which is a form of putting fear in people, which in turn is a form of terrorism.”
While far-right social media personalities and militias like The Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Three Percenters were easily identifiable by flags and insignias on their clothing, Mr Browning said the unrest could not be pinned on a small list of fringe groups.
“There are people that are from all over the States,” he said. “Everybody bands together now through social media… so to actually claim that the Three Percent group or a militia out of Arizona sparked all this, you just can’t do that.”
At least one man has lost his job as a result of his involvement in the riot, after he was photographed inside the Capitol wearing his employee ID around his neck.
Navistar Direct Marketing issued a statement on Thursday saying the unidentified employee had been terminated after a “review of the photographic evidence”.
Meanwhile, the FBI and Metropolitan Police Department have called on the public to help provide information that will “assist in identifying any individuals who are actively instigating violence in Washington DC”. An online portal has been opened for people to submit digital media that could identify those involved.
While a number of arrests have already been made in relation to the incident, mostly for unlawful entry and curfew violation, US constitutional expert and lawyer Harry Melkonian said it’s unlikely rioters will face accusations of treason or terrorism.
This is due to the mob environment, which means it will be difficult to prove any of the rioters intended to seriously overtake the government or commit terrorism, as opposed to getting swept up in the action.
“The problem you would have from a legal standpoint is the issue of intent … Was it a serious attempt to commit an act of terror? It could be, but it also could be a demonstration that got out of control,” he said.
“People have been charged with unlawful entry, and I assume there will be unlawful assembly charges, in other words, it’s very, very ordinary criminal law.”
The charges, and whether President Trump is pursued for his role in the violence, will also depend on how strongly the incoming administration is willing to call for prosecutions.
On this issue, Dr Melkonian, who is an Honorary Associate at the United States Studies Centre, believes Mr Biden will be hesitant in drawing out the process.
“The fact that there are … people dead means this is not going to be dealt with like spitting on the sidewalk,” he said. “My guess is the new President Joe Biden would not want this to contaminate his term.”
Mr Browning said that if figures such as Mr Angeli and Mr Gione serve jail time for their involvement, this could further inflame tensions.
“It’s going to fuel it,” he said. “The problem with what’s going on now is that there are all these different voices, not just one voice.”
