'If we'd had guns I guarantee we would have killed 100 politicians': Accused Oath Keeper threatened to murder lawmakers in Capitol, court documents say
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'If we'd had guns I guarantee we would have killed 100 politicians': Accused Oath Keeper threatened to murder lawmakers in Capitol, court documents say
Jacob Shamsian Tue, March 9, 2021, 12:16 PM 
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Thomas Caldwell, who participated in the January 6 insurrection, threatened to kill lawmakers.
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In messages prosecutors obtained, the accused Oath Keeper said to "hang the traitors."
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Lawyers are fighting over whether Caldwell should be released from jail ahead of trial.
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Thomas Caldwell, a participant in the January 6 riot at the Capitol, bragged about storming the building and told acquaintances he would have killed politicians if he could,according to new court filings reviewed by Insider.
The filings come in an argument from prosecutors to keep Caldwell in jail ahead of a criminal trial. He was arrested on several charges related to his participation in the insurrection.
"If we'd had guns I guarantee we would have killed 100 politicians," Caldwell wrote, according to messages prosecutors obtained. "They ran off and were spirited away through their underground tunnels like the rats they were."
Prosecutors said Caldwell is a member of the Oath Keepers, an extremist militia, and organized an attack on Congress with them as then-President Donald Trump urged lawmakers not to certify the 2020 presidential election results in favor of now-President Joe Biden, who was duly elected.
In the documents, prosecutors quoted from messages Caldwell sent to an acquaintance while sharing photos of his view from inside the Capitol building.
"It was instinct to snatch up my American flag and race for [the] capitol steps while the patriot stereos [were] blasting the song 'we're not gonna take it' and we were screaming along as one," he wrote in a message prosecutors obtained.
Caldwell's attorney David Fischerhas argued for his release from jailbefore his trial, casting doubt on his involvement in the insurrection and claiming he wasn't actually a member of the Oath Keepers. The judge previously ordered Caldwell to remain jailed, but Fischer asked him to reconsider. The attorney said Caldwell, a Navy veteran, was making macho exaggerations.
"What the Government misunderstands is that Caldwell's language and personality center around his military career and his addiction to Hollywood," Fischer wrote.
Communications obtained by prosecutors show that Caldwell organized with members of the Oath Keepers in the months ahead of January 6, saying he was "on the Oathkeepers intel net for months now." The messages also show that he personally described himself storming the Capitol building and sent photos of "the view from the balcony." He alsocomplained about having back pain.
Jessica Watkins,the ringleader of the Oath Keepers group,will remain in jail ahead of her trial. The cases for seven other members of the group charged in connection with the riot arestill moving through the court system.
'I said lets storm the place and hang the traitors'
Prosecutors cited messages Caldwell sent on the walkie-talkie app Zello and the encrypted messaging app Signal where he said he decided to break through barricades after "Pence f---ed us," referring to then-Vice President Mike Pence's decision to follow the Constitution and verify the election results, and media reports that other people had begun storming the Capitol.
"I said if we're going to get blamed, might as well do it," Caldwell wrote in messages obtained by prosecutors. "So I grabbed up my American flag and said let's take the damn capitol so people started surging forward and climbing the scaffolding outside so I said lets storm the place and hang the traitors. Everybody thought that was a good idea so we did [sic]."
Caldwell said he and other insurrectionists were hit with tear gas, but they moved forward, broke through doors, and "started duking it out with the pigs" before stealing riot shields belonging to Capitol police officers ("nice souvenir I guess,"he wrote) and "throwing fire extinguishers through windows."
"It was a great time," Caldwell said.
Prosecutors cited Caldwell's pride in the insurrection as an argument for why he should remain in detention until he's tried. After the attack, he criticized media coverage and said "what we did was righteous."
"The defense references Defendant Caldwell's history of military and government service to support its suggestion that Defendant Caldwell would never attempt to obstruct justice," prosecutors wrote. "The government agrees that someone with experience in those positions should know better, but the evidence suggests quite the contrary."
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Yet they let this scumbag out ahead of trial
Judge rules against U.S., grants bail to Oath Keeper charged in Capitol riot
Judge rules against U.S., grants bail to Oath Keeper charged in Capitol riot
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump gather in WashingtonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department arrested another alleged associate of the anti-government Oath Keepers militia on charges he took part in the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol, 6, and a judge granted him bail on Monday, rejecting government requests to keep him detained.
According to court papers, Roberto Minuta, 36, who owns a tattoo shop in Newburgh, New York, "berated and taunted" U.S. Capitol Police while clad in military-style gear, then attacked the Capitol and disrupted Congress as it was certifying President Joe Biden's election victory.
Minuta later deleted a Facebook account to "conceal his involvement in these offenses," the court papers said.
Bail was set at $150,000 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Krause at a hearing in White Plains, New York, two days after the defendant's arrest.
Krause said that while the charges were "most certainly" serious, he saw no evidence Minuta had committed violence, and that prosecutors may have overstated the risk of violence because he had worn military-style gear.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Gianforti said Minuta was a danger to the community and should have been held in custody, arguing he had been "spoiling for a fight of some kind," and that whatever motivated him "has not been washed from his mind."
Gianforti also said Minuta had an "apparent love of firearms," with 10 guns registered to his name and one on his person when he was arrested.
And I thought "patriots" loved the police. Wasn't that they were arguing last summer?
haven't you heard? all the antifa terrorists were holding trump flags.
I'm getting so confused....
Obviously there is no end to Made in China MAGA hats. Those members of BLM had to have gotten them from somewhere prior to the 6JAN21 Trump Riot.
produce for $3, sell for $30. duh. they're made one size fits all too.
How many people were arrested with guns at this riot?
Gun charges related to Capitol riot
So far, at least three people have been charged in federal court in the District of Columbia with gun crimes related to the Capitol riot, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Christopher Alberts, of Maryland, was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm on Capitol grounds or buildings, carrying a pistol without a license and possession of a large capacity ammunition feeding device. A Metro police officer said Alberts, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, had a “bulge” on his right hip that turned out to be a loaded handgun with a spare 12-round magazine.
Federal prosecutors also have charged Lonnie Coffman, of Alabama, with possession of an unregistered firearm and carrying a pistol without a license. A Capitol police officer swore in an affidavit that Coffman had a black handgun on the seat of his pickup truck and an assault rifle and magazines in the bed near where explosive devices had been reported at the National Republican Club and the Democratic National Committee headquarters.
A bomb squad also recovered 11 Molotov cocktails from Coffman’s truck, according to the affidavit, and Coffman also was carrying two handguns.
Almost all of the rioters were arrested long after the riot so your question of how many were arrested with guns at the riot is deprived of practical significance.
'Almost all of the rioters were arrested long after the riot so your question of how many were arrested with guns at the riot is deprived of practical significance.'
His intent.
An NC man claims he entered US Capitol to avoid being trampled. The FBI says otherwise.
Matthew Wood, the latest North Carolinian arrested in connection with the violent siege of the U.S. Capitol, presents a conundrum.
On one hand, a new federal court filing reveals that the Reidsville man has admitted to the FBI that he was in the building on Jan. 6, when hundreds of supporters of former President Donald Trump broke down doors and smashed windows to interrupt Congress’ certification of Trump’s electoral defeat to Joe Biden.
But Wood told investigators that he’d been pushed along by the angry crowd and only entered the building to keep from being trampled.
In fact, a photo included in the filing shows the 23-year-old Wood, a scarf draped around his neck, as one of the first intruders to climb through a broken-out window on the Senate side of the Capitol, carrying a Trump flag as he goes.
NC man posed with Ike inside the US Capitol. Then his family turned him in to the feds.
In a deleted Facebook post recovered by the FBI, Wood said police guarding the building were never the targets of the Trump insurgents.
Yet a photo included in the court filing shows Wood apparently screaming and gesturing for more Trump supporters massed in the Capitol Rotunda to battle the line of police defending it.
In an interview at his home three weeks after the siege, Wood also told the FBI that he never intended to march on the Capitol or disrupt the certification of Biden’s victory.
Feds: Ex-NC cop part of Oath Keepers plot to storm US Capitol and overturn Trump loss
His Facebook posts, which Wood deleted before the interview but the FBI recovered, say differently. In them, he repeats the baseless rallying cry that Trump won.
“Our election was stolen. The system is against us. I stood up to a tyrannical government,” he wrote. “You can keep sitting or you can do something about it like we did today.”
“This is the PEOPLES house,” he boasted in another post. “We sent those politicians running. We the PEOPLE will fight for our country ... When diplomacy doesn’t work and your message has gone undelivered, it shouldn’t surprise you when we revolt.”
Wood could not be reached for comment Tuesday. His attorney, David Freedman of Winston-Salem, said in an email that his client is cooperating with the investigation and had contacted the FBI after seeing his photo on a bureau website.
Nothing says "I'M Guilty" like tampering with evidence.
Lmao
So... What this guy is saying is that the tough DC gun laws worked?