A Proud Boys leader caught on camera storming the U.S. Capitol with a pro-Trump mob has been arrested and charged for participating in the deadly insurrection.
Joseph Biggs, a top organizer with the white nationalist organization, has been slapped with three charges, including obstruction of an official proceeding, for his role in the Jan. 6 riots.
Prosecutors say the 37-year-old Florida resident is a “self-described organizer” of the Proud Boys, which describes itself as a “pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world; aka Western Chauvinists.”
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Biggs can be seen in several videos and photos taken inside the Capitol building, including one where someone shouts out his name. In the video, Biggs pulls down his face mask and declares, “This is awesome,” according to a criminal complaint.
During his hearing in Orlando, U.S. Magistrate Judge Embry Kidd ordered Biggs released under home confinement with monitoring, stating there are concerns he will attempt to obstruct justice.
Prosecutors also describe in the complaint how Proud Boy organizers—including the organization’s leader, Enrique Tarrio, encouraged their members to attend the insurrection at the Capitol in the days leading up to it.
In one Dec. 29 message, Biggs wrote on Parler, “We will not be attending DC in colors. We will be blending in as one of you. You won’t see us. You’ll even think we are you...We are going to smell like you, move like you, and look like you.”
“The only thing we’ll do that’s us is think like us! Jan 6th is gonna be epic,” Biggs continued, according to the complaint, which notes that authorities understood he was speaking directly to “antifa.”
Tarrio was arrested on Jan. 4, two days before the riots. Several other extremists have been arrested for their roles in planning and participating in the riots, including Dominic “Spazzo” Pezzola, a Proud Boys member who allegedly smashed a window at the Capitol with a police shield, and an apparent leader of the Oath Keepers.
The complaint against Biggs says he was seen on Jan. 6 with “a group of people that hold themselves out as Proud Boys” on the east side of the Capitol. The men were dressed “incognito”—instead of donning the Proud Boys colors of black and yellow, Biggs was “wearing glasses and a dark knit hat, is dressed in a blue and grey plaid shirt,” according to the court papers.
Videos and photos show the men marching down Constitution Avenue during the riots, chanting “Fuck antifa!” and “Whose streets? Our streets!” When the group reached the Capitol, Pezzola broke a window with a clear plastic shield before a swarm of rioters—including Biggs—entered the building, authorities said.
According to the complaint, some of the Proud Boys members, including Biggs, appeared to be wearing earpieces or carrying “walkie-talkie style communication” devices.
On Jan. 18, Biggs told FBI agents that he was present in D.C. for the demonstration, but didn’t break into the Capitol building or plan the siege.
“Biggs informed the interviewing agent that the doors of the Capitol were wide open when he made entry into the building,” the complaint states. “Biggs denied having any knowledge of any pre-planning of storming the Capitol and had no idea who planned it.”
Two New York men were also arrested in connection with the deadly siege on Wednesday.
Samuel Fisher, 35, was arrested by the FBI around 8 a.m. Wednesday on the Upper East Side and charged with unlawful entry and disorderly conduct in the Capitol. While Fisher was arrested in New York, his case is being prosecuted in Washington, D.C, along with the cases of hundreds of other rioters who have been charged since the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The “LuxLife Dating” coach allegedly posted photos on social media at the riot. In one photo, he holds at least one firearm in front of a flag that states, “Don’t Tread on Trump, Keep America Great.” The photo is captioned: “Can’t wait to bring a liberal back to this freedom palace.”
Another New York state resident, Patrick Edward McCaughey III, was also arrested in South Salem for allegedly crushing a Metropolitan Police Officer with a riot shield during the siege. McCaughey will be arraigned in White Plains Federal Court, where he is facing several charges, including assaulting an officer.
Federal authorities have also filed charges against Mathew Capsel, who was captured on video assaulting several National Guard members and is “known to be violent.” A criminal complaint states authorities were tipped off to Capsel’s involvement in the Jan. 6 mob from a former neighbor who sent screenshots of his Facebook account and videos that show him on the frontlines of the riot and breach.
Capsel, who has distinctive tattoos on his face and neck and was wearing a red, white, and blue hat during the riots, also posted several videos on the social-media platform TikTok throughout the riots.
“Listen, guys, they only got so much mace. And we got all these patriots. We’re not running out. They’re going to run out,” Capsel says to the camera in one TikTok post, before turning the camera around to show the hundreds of rioters. “Hold the line. Don’t run.”
In another video, Capsel is seen “fighting against National Guardsmen until he is pepper-sprayed.” “Specifically, the video depicts Capsel charging against a lined group of National Guardsmen, running into their protective shields,” the complaint states.
Jordan Mink, a Pennsylvania resident, was charged Tuesday after smashing a Capitol window with a baseball bat during the riots. Prosecutors say in a criminal complaint that Mink was seen in many videos and photographs “wielding the baseball bat at the Capitol” and entering the building through the window he broke. Mink also allegedly removed chairs from inside the Capitol and handing them to “people in the crowd on the exterior of the building.”
