The MAGA mob that ransacked the United States Capitol came to Washington armed with more than just crazy conspiracy theories and a violent sense of entitlement. Scattered throughout over a hundred alleged rioters’ court cases are disturbing hints of the arsenal pro-Trump insurrectionists either brought along or had ready at home.
FBI agents say they found a crossbow, assault rifles, knives, tasers, baseball bats, and even bear spray. Many of the weapons, strapped to suspects sporting military helmets and ballistic vests, were used to beat Capitol police and smash into congressional offices, prosecutors say. Others, like a cooler full of Molotov cocktails ingredients, fortunately never saw use.
Welcome to Rabbit Hole, where we dive deep on the biggest story. It’s for Beast Inside members only. Join up today.
Grin and bear (spray) it: Many of the Capitol police under assault by rioters appear to have had their own stocks of pepper spray and mace turned against them after they were either dropped or looted in the chaos.
But some rioters came prepared with their own supply.
FBI agents first noticed the potential use of bear spray in videos of the assault on the Capitol. Some rioters brought their own “small handheld mace equivalents that can be easily purchased,” but others were visible spraying a brighter orange liquid from larger cans, the feds say. That stuff appeared to be “consistent with bear spray and is known to have a higher potency than commercial chemical irritants as it is designed for large animals,” according to an FBI affidavit.
Much like normal pepper spray, bear spray is designed to blind targets with oleoresin capsicum, the burning ingredient in chili peppers. But unlike the stuff people might carry for self-defense, which typically aims a narrow beam at a target’s eyes, bear spray pushes irritants out in a wider cloud of disabling piquant mist.
FBI agents identified Jon Schaffer, a “lifetime member” of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, as one of the men spraying Capitol police with the bear-disabling irritant, according to court documents.
In a detention hearing on Friday, prosecutors also accused Robert Gieswein, a Colorado-based militia fan identified by The Daily Beast, as having used bear spray on Capitol police. Gieswein, allegedly seen wielding a baseball bat outside the Capitol clashing with police at the Capitol, was described in an FBI affidavit as carrying a “black canister in his hand” which he used to spray “an unidentified substance” at police.
Guns and explosives galore: Firearms were among the most ominous weapons found on alleged rioters, both during and after the Jan. 6 assault.
Lonnie Coffman is the man prosecutors say was popped with a cooler full of the makings of 11 Molotov cocktails. The devices, tucked into mason jars, mixed gasoline with styrofoam. The mixture, a common home recipe in extremist texts like the Anarchist Cookbook, makes an improvised incendiary substance similar to napalm that can stick to skin and surfaces while burning for extended periods of time.
Coffman also stashed a 9mm handgun, a rifle, shotgun, and large capacity ammunition-feeding devices in his pickup truck parked on First Street near the Capitol, according to the feds. In addition to the firearms and incendiary devices, law enforcement also found crossbows and machetes in his truck.
Some of the alleged rioters weren't just threatening because they carried or even used weapons. Sometimes, the weapons they brought synced up in terrifying fashion with specific threats they are said to have issued against lawmakers and even their family members.
Cleveland Meredith allegedly texted an associate on Jan. 7 that he had been “thinking about heading over to Pelosi C***’s speech and putting a bullet in her noggin on Live TV.” In a series of text messages, Meredith allegedly also threatened to kill D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. On the day of the riot, he allegedly sent a text that he was “ready to remove several craniums from shoulders.”
The threats were not idle ones, according to court documents.
Meredith drove to Washington, D.C., that week armed with an “assault style rifle, a Glock firearm with high capacity magazines, and over 2,500 rounds of ammunition,” including 320 rounds of armor-piercing bullets, according to a detention memo filed by prosecutors.
He allegedly claimed in a text exchange that his threats amounted only to “psychological warfare” and that “I’ve been on the radar for a while now, they now [sic] I’m harmless.”
Fortunately, Washington, D.C., never got to find out how serious Meredith was about his threats. His truck broke down en route to the city and arrived after the riot took place.
Guy Refitt, an alleged militia member from Texas, allegedly threatened his own son and daughter if they informed on him to the FBI after his participation in the riot, telling them “traitors get shot,” according to court documents. Nonetheless, Refitt’s son told agents he saw his father return from Washington after the attack with an “AR-15 rifle and a Smith & Wesson pistol.” Reffit later told agents that he had brought his pistol to Washington but claimed to have disassembled it in order to comply with the District’s gun laws.
Samuel Fisher, a New York City-based pickup artist, traveled to Washington with “multiple firearms and a bulletproof vest,” according to court documents. After FBI agents gained access to his Facebook account, they found multiple posts leading up to the riot where Fisher allegedly mentioned his “anxiety is high” and that he hadn’t slept in days, with multiple posts about plans to bring guns to the Capitol on Jan 6.
On the day of the riot, Fisher allegedly posted a picture of his AR-15-style assault rifle and a handgun with the words, “Leaving shit in there maybe except pistol,” and “if it kicks off I got a Vest and My Rifle.”
FBI agents armed with assault rifles arrested Fisher on the Upper East Side in New York and recovered two machetes, a shotgun, and a cache of ammunition from his Manhattan home.
Eric Munchel triggered a crowdsourced manhunt when pictures of him—on the floor of the Senate, holding flex cuffs in his hand and a taser on his hip—hit social media. In an interview with a reporter for the U.K.’s Sunday Times, Munchel “claimed that he had left his guns behind in Tennessee due to strict gun laws in Washington.” But in a detention memo filed in his criminal case, FBI agents cast doubt on the claim. Instead, they argued that “there is evidence that MUNCHEL and [his mother Lisa] Eisenhart were armed with firearms when they came to Washington for the rally.”
Munchel certainly had access to plenty. In his home state of Tennessee, he had a concealed carry permit. During a search of his home, FBI agents said they “located approximately 15 firearms, including assault rifles, a sniper rifle with a tripod, other rifles, shotguns, and pistols, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.”
In his detention memo, agents allege that Munchel may have stashed some of his weapons outside the Capitol before heading in. They quoted Munchel’s mother Lisa Eisenhart, who was arrested on rioting charges alongside him, telling her son, “We’re going straight to federal prison if we go in there with weapons,” shortly before entering the Capitol. Shortly afterwards, Munchel allegedly said he needed to “take my weapons off before I go in there.”
Knives: Some of the alleged rioters who were armed with knives got uncomfortably far into the Capitol. Joshua Matthew Black, who was visible on the Senate floor in a red MAGA hat and hunting jacket shortly after police evacuated the chamber, allegedly bragged about packing a knife on him at the time without law enforcement noticing.
That is, until Black appeared to publish a YouTube video admitting as much two days after the riot. Court documents quote Black saying, “I actually had a knife on me, but they never.... I had too much clothes on, it was freezing out there, you know, so.” In the monologue, he claims he had no intention of “pulling it” and merely had the weapon on him because I work outside, and you need knives, you know,” but added that D.C. has strict gun laws “and I don’t like being defenseless.”
William Watson was already charged with possession of and drug trafficking LSD and marijuana in Alabama when he allegedly violated his bond and traveled out of state to participate in the Capitol riot. During a Jan. 15 interview, he admitted to possessing a 3- to 4-inch knife during the riot and using it “to help tear down cloth around the presidential Inauguration scaffolding so the crowd could move further up toward the U.S. Capitol Building,” according to an affidavit from the FBI.
Tasers: Eric Munchel wasn’t the only one with an electric stun device in the Capitol. Richard “Big O” Barnett became an icon of the rioters when he took a series of selfies while sitting in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. FBI agents examining the photographs saw something more alarming in the photographs on his hip as he put his feet up on a desk: a ZAP Hike N Strike 950,000-volt Stun Gun Walking Stick.
When FBI agents executed a search warrant on Barnett’s Gravette, Arkansas, home, they say, they found empty packaging for the ZAP-brand stun gun, confirming agents’ suspicions.
One rioter, later identified by the FBI as Vitali Gossjankowski, was visible in video of the Capitol holding “a black-colored handheld Taser” and “activating the Taser multiple times.” Gossjankowski was visible in footage nearby Capitol Police officer Mike Fanone, who reported being tased during the Capitol riot and was rushed to hospital after suffering a heart attack. Gossjankowski denied using the device on Fanone and claimed that he “discarded the Taser in a trash can outside the U.S. Capitol building,” according to court documents. (Prosecutors didn’t charge Gossjankowski with using the taser but did charge him with entering a restricted building and disrupting official proceedings while carrying a dangerous weapon.)
Baseball bats: At least three rioters have been charged so far with bringing baseball bats to try and beat and smash their way into the Capitol. As a mob of rioters tried to force its way past a handful of police defending the West Terrace entrance of the Capitol building, FBI agents noticed one man in particular, later identified as Emmanuel Jackson. He was “repeatedly striking” officers in an attempt to clear a path into the building for rioters with a metal baseball bat “in an effort to disable them and to allow the mob to gain entry to the West Terrace Entrance,” the feds say. In a detention memo, prosecutors argued Jackson should be held in custody pending trial, because Capitol police could have been “seriously injured, if not killed, by his repeated downward blows.”
Jordan Mink also brought a bat but went swinging for glass instead of police officers, according to court documents. Video shows Mink allegedly wielding a bat to break a window, and a confidential witness reported a conversation with Mink allegedly “admitting to the destruction of the window.”
Riot gear jiu jitsu: When rioters didn’t have arms handy, they took them off outnumbered Capitol police and used them against the cops. Riot shields were a particular favorite. Dominic “Spazzo” Pezzola allegedly used a police shield to breach a window in the Capitol while others used them against police themselves.
FBI agents claim that Edward Lang, who traveled to D.C. from New York, donned a Metropolitan Police Department helmet and a riot shield, “raised the shield above his head, and thrusted it in the direction of the law enforcement officers.”
Rioters also assembled a group of the protective devices and told others at the Capitol to form a “shield wall” in order to protect other insurrectionists from being hit by irritants sprayed by police. Patrick Edward McCaughey, allegedly one of the police shield carriers, is accused of using it to press into and strike Officer Daniel Hodges, who was seen screaming in pain while being crushed by rioters in a now-infamous clip.
On Wednesday, a judge ordered McCaughey held in detention, citing the video of his “disturbing” behavior. Among those who helped tip off police about him: a witness described as a childhood friend.
