A New York man was charged Monday for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot after numerous tipsters identified him by his high school varsity jacket. Brian Gundersen’s jacket, which displayed the name of the school he attended in Armonk, along with his former football jersey number, could be clearly seen in footage broadcast on CNN after the sacking of the Capitol, says a criminal complaint filed Monday in federal court. The FBI interviewed a “close personal” friend of Gundersen, who said the 26-year-old was “an avid supporter of former President Trump and a follower of commentator Nick Fuentes,” a far-right podcaster who was banned from YouTube in February 2020 for violating the site’s hate speech policy.
In an interview with the FBI, Gundersen admitted to being in the Capitol “for about ten minutes” after being “pushed into the building by the crowd.” He claims he “was never violent while inside the Capitol.” According to the FBI, a search of Gundersen’s phone turned up a message he sent reading, “We all stormed the us capital [sic] and tried to take over the government,” followed by, “We failed but f--- it.” Agents also discovered an alleged Google search on Gundersen’s phone for “pelosi’s office.”
