WASHINGTON (CN) — A U.S. naval reservist who blames the Antifa for inciting the crowd and breaking windows at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was arrested on Thursday after admitting to an undercover FBI agent that he joined his Proud Boys “friends” in the riot, according to prosecutors.
“The Antifa kept sending people up the staircase and trying to get people to come and we’re all like ‘no, we’re not going to follow you,’” Hatchet Speed allegedly said during a meeting last month with an undercover agent who acted as a “like-minded individual.”
But Speed said he eventually grew “tired of getting tear-gassed” by police trying to fend off the mob, prosecutors say, and that is when he decided to follow the crowd up the stairs and into the Capitol building where Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory.
“Speed blamed ‘Antifa’ for breaking windows and entering off-limit areas of the Capitol, and he blamed the police for using tear gas in a manner to force the crowd into the off-limit areas,” according to an FBI affidavit.
He was arrested in Mclean, Virginia, on Thursday and charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
According to the affidavit, Speed admitted to the undercover FBI agent that he came to the Capitol on Jan. 6 with his "friends who were members of the Proud Boys,” a right-wing extremist group that includes five members who are charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the Capitol riot.
As Speed tells it, his “initial” plan did not involve storming the Capitol. Rather, he was just going to stand outside the building and listen to speeches, “for the 12 hours it would take to do the two-hour rebuttal for each of the six contested states.”
"The reason we were going to the Capitol was to protest what was going on in the Capitol … what they were doing was counting the ballots,” he allegedly told the agent.
Speed insisted they were “just here to make a statement … [that] we are here and we are paying attention.”
But after ignoring calls of so-called left-wing Antifa members to go up the stairs toward the Senate Wing doors, Speed said his tiredness from the tear gas – coupled with hearing that then-Vice President Mike Pence had “validated” ballots that were said to be “invalid” – is what drove him to breach the Capitol building.
Describing the ballot approval allegation as a betrayal by Pence, Speed told the undercover FBI agent he had “no respect for the people” in the Capitol and vice versa.
“[S]o we all went in and we took control,” Speed said. “Like, when you have that many thousands of people, like there’s nothing the cops can do … it’s impressive.”
The naval reservist claims he entered through the Senate Wing doors and only went in the Capitol building "a little ways" – not toward “anything too important.” CCTV footage inside the Capitol captured him walking around the rotunda and the Crypt.
After about 40 minutes, he reportedly exited through a broken window near the Senate Wing doors after hearing someone say House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had agreed to a “10-day delay of the vote” and that an investigation into the “improprieties of the election” would be launched.
"At that point, they agreed to leave because ‘[a]ll we wanted was for somebody to admit that this was not an honest election and look into it,’” Speed said, according to prosecutors.
The affidavit notes he “lamented” that the promise of a probe and vote delay ended up being lies to get them to leave the building.
Dissatisfied with the turnout of hundreds who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, Speed allegedly told the agent he “wished more people would have shown up.”
“It should have gotten to the point where Nancy Pelosi should have resigned out of fear for her life,” he said, according to the FBI. “That’s what should have happened.”
He allegedly continued, “there are too many Americans that have this idea that we have to be peaceful all costs.”
An initial court appearance for Speed has not yet been scheduled. According to court filings, he is a petty officer first class in the U.S. Naval Reserves who recently worked as a software developer and technical lead for Virginia-based Novetta Solutions LLC.
Allegations of Antifa members infiltrating the crowd at the Capitol to instigate violence are not new.
An article by The Washington Times published on the day of the Capitol riot falsely claimed that XRVision, a software firm in New York, had corroborated speculation that two Antifa members “had infiltrated” the crowd of pro-Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol. The news outlet has since issued a correction retracting the claim.
The Justice Department has charged more than 840 people in connection with the Capitol riot. As of June 8, about 246 people have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors, 59 have pleaded guilty to felonies, and at least 80 people have been sentenced to incarceration.
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