From documents for Kevin Lyons of Illinois, who is accused of illegaly entering the Capitol:
The FBI affidavit for Lyons, an HVAC tech from Chicago, suggests defense lawyers, as a profession, are not getting the word out about what they can do for people. The FBI first contacted Lyons about two posts on his Instagram account: One showed his driving route to DC and with the legend “I refuse to tell my children that I sat back and did nothing. I’m heading to DC to STOP THE STEAL!” The second showed a photo showing a sign from Nancy Pelosi’s office with the comment “WHOS HOUSE?!?!? OUR HOUSE!!”
According to the affidavit, Lyons was at first “evasive” about whether he’d entered the Capitol but said he “100% guaranteed, without incriminating himself” that he did not observe any damage being done to the building. He then described a dream to the FBI where he “saw a lot of banging on doors, paper being thrown about, and a mob of people.” In the dream, Lyons said, “people didn’t really have much choice of where they were going because of the mob.” Lyons then “advised that if he were inside, he was inside for approximately 45 minutes.”
Shown a photo of his purported Pelosi post, Lyons told the FBI, “wow you are pretty good that was up for only an hour.” He also “stated that he can’t guarantee that he posted it.” He then showed the agents the photo, which was on his phone, as well as another photo and a video of what looked like people walking through the Capitol.
When asked if he would provide the FBI with the video, Lyons “said the file would be too big, and offered to upload his videos to YouTube and email the links to the agents.” When the email arrived, the affidavit says, it read, “Hello Nice FBI Lady, Here are the links to the videos.”
Lyons also told agents that when he attended the pro-Trump rally earlier in the day in downtown DC, he was unable to fit a Kevlar vest over his sweatshirt.
From documents regarding Thomas Baranyi of New Jersey:
On January 6, the affidavit reads, Baranyi gave an interview to DC-area TV station WUSA, where he identified himself and his home state. He “began by showing the reporter blood on his hand, as shown in the screenshot below. When asked how he got blood on his hand, BARANYI explained that “[w]e had stormed into the chambers inside and there was a young lady who rushed through the windows. A number of police and Secret Service were saying get down, get out of the way. She didn’t heed the call and as we kind of raced up to try to grab people and pull them back, they shot her in the neck, and she fell back on me.”
This appears to be a reference to Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed during the pro-Trump mob’s assault on the Capitol.
Baranyi explained to WUSA that “we tore through the scaffolding, through flash bangs and tear gas, and blitzed our way in through all the chambers just trying to get into Congress or whoever we could get in to and tell them that we need some kind of investigation into this.”
From documents about Robert Keith Packer of Virginia, who is accused of being the “Camp Auschwitz guy” after the sweatshirt he allegedly wore on January 6:
In addition to comparing photos from the riot against Packer’s drivers’ license, the affiant writes, a witness got in touch to say they “recognized the individual…as a routine customer at a store near Newport News, Virginia.” The witness didn’t ID Packer by his name, the affidavit says, “but recognized PACKER’s sweatshirt and provided a photograph of PACKER inside the store on December 11, 2o2o.”
Here’s the photograph from the document:
To keep abreast of documents from law-enforcement investigations into the riot, please visit the invaluable database from George Washington University’s Program on Extremism.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
