A retired New Jersey state trooper, who the FBI says was among the first Jan. 6 rioters to breach police barricades and storm the U.S. Capitol, claimed he entered the building but only because he really needed to use the men’s room. That’s according to a newly unsealed criminal complaint charging Michael Daniele of Holmdel, New Jersey, with five felony and misdemeanor counts for his alleged actions as part of a pro-Trump mob trying to interrupt Joe Biden’s certification as president-elect. When FBI agents interviewed Daniele at his home on April 19, 2021, the complaint says he “admitted that he ultimately entered the Capitol building through a broken doorway that was next to a broken window… [but] only entered one large space of the building and after looking for a bathroom and not finding one, left immediately thereafter.” He was inside the building for roughly seven minutes, according to the complaint.
