Air Force Employee Busted By Feds Over Jan. 6 Coup

0
1558

Ohio resident — and Air Force Base employee — Jared Samuel Kastner has now joined those facing federal criminal charges for their participation in the Capitol riot. Kastner is an employee at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio; the entity employing Kastner deals with the management of weapons systems that are used by individuals in the Air Force. Now, Kastner’s federal charges include “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,” the Springfield News-Sun explains.

Kastner does not appear to be accused of directly perpetrating violence while at the Capitol, and after his initial arrest, he has been released from custody ahead of further proceedings. Federal authorities worked through their investigation of Kastner with the assistance of tech records, including materials from Google that pinned the device affiliated with Kastner’s account as having been inside the Capitol building for a time on January 6. Kastner was also found in surveillance footage from the Capitol complex on that fateful day, where he showed up walking through the Senate Wing door and inside the Capitol’s Crypt, which is the area directly below the Capitol Rotunda.

Investigators also used tech records to chart Kastner’s travel from Ohio to Washington, D.C., and back, with stops on the way at a Maryland apartment, whose resident spoke with authorities and verified that Kastner and another individual had stayed there. Kastner is now among hundreds of Trump supporters to have been charged for participating in the storming of the Capitol. Others have faced consequences that aren’t criminal charges — in Texas, the firing of Roxanne Mathai from her role as a lieutenant with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office was recently upheld by an arbitrator after she was found to have been among the crowds of Trump supporters who descended on the Capitol in January. Mathai hasn’t been charged with any crimes, as prosecutors have appeared to largely focus on those who entered the building and/ or committed specific acts of violence.

Featured Image (edited): via Blink o’fanaye on Flickr and available under a Creative Commons License