A New York man caught on camera smoking a joint inside the Capitol building amid the Jan. 6 insurrection has been arrested after several of his co-workers ratted him out to federal authorities.
James Bonet, of Glens Falls, New York, has been charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds for his role in the siege. Prosecutors allege Bonet, a shift manager in Saratoga Springs, was spotted in several photos and videos participating in the riots, including one selfie video titled, “Smoking at the capital building [sic].”
“Capitol building smoking with all my people!” Bonet says in the video, which shows him smoking pot with several other rioters.
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In another video taken inside the Crypt of the Capitol, Bonet films other rioters celebrating and chanting, “Whose house? Our house!” In a third video, titled “Made it in,” Bonet declares: “We made it in the building bitches! We’re taking it back! We are taking it back, we made it in the building!”
According to a criminal complaint, Bonet’s decision to drive down from New York to the nation’s capital was unsurprising to his co-workers, who said he openly talked about “government conspiracy theories at work” and tried to convince others to “subscribe to those theories, including the conspiracy theory that the 2020 Presidential Election was ‘stolen.’”
His baseless belief the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump also prompted him to drive to Washington, D.C., to protest in November. One of his co-workers who contacted the FBI said they were afraid Bonet would get COVID-19 at that protest and “spread it to them because they saw photographs of Bonet...not wearing a facemask.”
The co-worker added that on Jan. 6 a fellow employee sent a video of Bonet smoking weed inside the Capitol to their group chat. After seeing several other videos showing Bonet at the Capitol with fellow MAGA supporters his co-workers decided to send complaints to federal authorities.
Bonet is among several insurrectionists who smoked inside the government building after thousands of MAGA supporters broke in and forced elected officials to go into hiding for several hours. Dominic “Spazzo” Pezzola, who allegedly smashed a window at the Capitol with a police shield, proudly smoked a victory cigar inside the Capitol after breaching the building.
“Victory smoke in the Capitol, boys. This is fucking awesome. I knew we could take this motherfucker over [if we] just tried hard enough,” Pezzola says in a video.
Proud Boy Hawaii founder and alt-right media personality Nick Ochs also shared a photo that showed him smoking a cigarette in the building.“Hello from the Capital lol,” the caption read.
Nicholas DeCarlo, a Texas resident who wore a “Murder The Media” shirt to the riots and was photographed with Ochs and the so-called “QAnon Shaman” at the Capitol, also posed for a photo while smoking a cigarette in the building. DeCarlo, who was charged last week with several crimes related to the Jan. 6 siege, was arrested on Tuesday.
Kenneth Grayson, a 51-year-old QAnon believer, was also charged Tuesday after he filmed himself in the Crypt beneath the Capitol and posted it to Facebook.
Several tipsters sent his Facebook account and videos to the police, prosecutors said. On his Facebook, Grayson posted about his unwavering support for Trump and his belief that the election was stolen. He went to D.C. in November and December for protests in support of Trump, a criminal complaint says.
After his November trip, he wrote to a friend on Facebook, “We were smashing bro..went to the van I rented and geared up..had to leave at 7pm though, it wasn’t really bad yet..I was beating commies with a flag pole I picked up and looked like it wasn’t going to be that bad Proud Boys were everywhere..cops weren’t doing a fukin thing watching old people get fucked with it was sickening,”
He added, “I left one unconscious so I did my little part and got the fuck out before I got arrested.”
Kenneth Grayson.
Criminal ComplaintAbout a month later, Grayson told friends and family about his plan to go to D.C. on Jan 6, the complaint says. He said he was “sick of these fukin posers on FB big tough guys always talking about their guns and tempers and ooo scary guy shit! FUCK U !! I’m on the front line every time mother fuckers!”
“I’m there for the greatest celebration of all time after Pence leads the Senate flip!! OR IM THERE IF TRUMP TELLS US TO STORM THE FUKIN CAPITAL IMA DO THAT THEN! We don’t want any trouble but they are not going to steal this election that I guarantee bro!!” Grayson wrote, according to the complaint.
In another post two days before the riot, he wrote that he was going to D.C. “to fight not hang out.”
On Jan. 6, he was seen in several videos wearing a black Pittsburgh Pirates cap and a black hoodie with a yellow ‘Q’ on it—referring to QAnon. He was also carrying a yellow Gadsden flag with the slogan “Don't Tread On Me.” As he was live-streaming, several family members and friends sent him messages on social media.
“Kenny they’re in the Senate chamber! Can you get in anywhere?? TAKE PHOTOS!!! TAKE DOCUMENTS!!,” one message said. In another, someone mentioned that his videos were taken down from Facebook, adding, “Nice fucking work today.”
However, one person wrote: “Kenny get to [sic] hell out of there. Its a federal offense to be in there.”
