Instagram Posts Help FBI Nab Trump-Loving Romance Novel Model Who Beat Capitol Cops
The FBI has arrested Logan Barnhart, whom online sleuths dubbed “CatSweat,” with the help of the Sedition Hunters community.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The man known as #CatSweat wanted for assaulting officers at the Capitol. (SEDITIONHUNTERS.ORG)
When former President Donald Trump sent a tweet early this year promoting Jan. 6 as a “Historic day,” a conspiracy-minded former bodybuilder from Michigan let the president know he had his back.
“I’ll be there,” Logan Barnhart replied to @realDonaldTrump on Twitter.
Now, seven months after the man online sleuths dubbed #CatSweat was photographed dragging a police officer down a set of stairs during the attack on the U.S. Capitol, he has been arrested by the FBI. An official confirmed the arrest to HuffPost Tuesday morning.
Barnhart was charged as part of a superseding indictment returned by a grand jury on Aug. 4 and unsealed on Tuesday.
Barnhart, whom the FBI referred to as Capitol suspect 128-AFO because he was wanted for assaulting federal officers, was a major target for the “Sedition Hunters” community, which had given him the nickname “CatSweat” because he was wearing a sweatshirt branded with the name of Caterpillar, the construction equipment manufacturer. (Barnhart worked as a machine operator for Barnhart & Son Inc., which is owned by his father.)
HuffPost positively identified Barnhart before his arrest based on the work of citizen sleuths months ago, but held off on publishing his name based on his violent history (which included rioting charges when he was a teenager) and because the FBI was working on the case.
A tipping point in the investigation came when the Sedition Hunters uncovered video of Barnhart that showed him without sunglasses during the Trump rally at the White House Ellipse prior to the attack.
That image of Barnhart’s face, plugged into a publicly available facial recognition website, pulled up several other images of Barnhart that are plastered across the internet on bodybuilding websites and photography portfolios.
Yet it was Barnhart’s Instagram account ― where he described himself as a “Pipe Layer\heavy machine operator” and posted right-wing memes alongside shirtless thirst traps ― that sealed the deal.
In July 2019, Barnhart posted an image of himself wearing the same American flag hat he’d later wear to the Capitol. And in August 2020, he posted a video of himself at work in a Caterpillar-branded sweatshirt.
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HuffPost positively identified Barnhart before his arrest based on the work of citizen sleuths months ago, but held off on publishing his name based on his violent history (which included rioting charges when he was a teenager) and because the FBI was working on the case.
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