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(Reuters) – A man photographed carrying away the president’s lectern during the Capitol riots was arrested on Friday night, while a top Democratic lawmaker on Saturday asked mobile operators to preserve social media content related to the the riots.
Dozens of people have been charged after the assault on the Capitol on Wednesday, and the FBI asked the public for help identifying the participants, given the proliferation of images of the riots on the Internet. Five people were killed, including a Capitol Hill police officer.
On Saturday, US Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat who is the incoming chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, urged mobile operators to keep content and associated metadata connected to the riot, which erupted when lawmakers gathered to certify the election of President-elect Joe. Biden.
Warner, in letters to the companies, emphasized how the rioters took the time to document the event and posted them via social media and text messages “to celebrate their disdain for our democratic process.”
The photograph of Adam Christian Johnson smiling and waving as he carried Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern from the House of Representatives chambers had gone viral. Johnson, of Parrish, Florida, also posted a live video on Facebook of himself as he walked the halls of the Capitol, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
The video was removed from online platforms and all its pages were removed.
Reuters efforts on Saturday to contact Johnson’s family at their home were unsuccessful. It was unclear if he had legal representation.
He is the stay-at-home father of five and lives with his wife in their Parrish home, the Miami Herald reported. The newspaper also reported that on Johnson’s social media pages, he boasted of being in Washington before the riots.
Johnson, who will appear in federal court for the first time on Monday, is being charged with leaving Washington.
Along with Johnson’s arrest, at least 13 people were facing criminal charges in U.S. District Court in connection with the riot, and at least 40 other people faced lesser charges in Superior Court of the District of Columbia, a local place.
Many of those people were arraigned Thursday and released, with a judge order not to return to Washington except for court appearances or meetings with their attorneys.
Among them were Richard Barnett, the man from Gravette, Arkansas, who was photographed sitting at Pelosi’s desk and is also known as Bigo.
The FBI and the Washington Police Department are jointly investigating the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who was injured while defending the United States Capitol on Wednesday. The flags on the Capitol were lowered to half mast Friday in honor of Sicknick.
Capitol Police have said that the Washington police homicide unit was investigating the death.
“Just because you’ve left the DC region, you can still expect someone to knock on the door if we find out you were part of the criminal activity on Capitol Hill,” said Steven D’antuono, deputy director in charge of the FBI field office at Washington. he said Friday.
(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Edited by Chizu Nomiyama)
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