A Washington father and two sons of his have been caught and charged for their participation in last year’s Trump-incited attack on the Capitol. Each of them face a series of seven misdemeanor charges; although misdemeanors, such allegations can still result in jail-time if found guilty.
The three newly arrested family members include 51-year-old Kevin M. Cronin alongside 29-year-old Kevin M. Cronin II and 25-year-old Dylan Rhylei Cronin. The three of them apparently participated in the large outdoor rally in D.C. that preceded the Capitol breach, adding yet another piece of evidence for that rally’s role in the events that day — and the role in the Capitol violence of those, including former President Donald Trump, who participated in the preceding rally. The rally, though, isn’t where the incitement ended — Trump spent months spreading false claims of a stolen election and pushing for urgent action.
The Cronins evidently ended up at the Capitol relatively early in the day. Dylan kicked a door in the Capitol’s Senate Wing at approximately 2:12 p.m., and shortly thereafter, “open-source video captured a person believed to be Dylan using a piece of lumber to break the lower right pane of glass in a window to the right of the exterior Senate Wing door,” according to Justice Department revelations. Dylan subsequently seems to have gone into the Capitol building “through the left windowpane adjacent to the right windowpane he broke,” per that same info. It remains remarkable that such a large number of Trump supporters could suddenly engage in behavior as bonkers as climbing through a broken window at the Capitol building after breaking an apparently different window. There’s obviously a lot more along these lines that also went on — for hours, Trump fanatics rampaged through the Capitol premises.
All three Cronins ended up inside of the Capitol building during the riot last year, and at one point, they met up, with the two younger members of the family smoking cigarettes. The younger two apparently have a history as members of the Washington Army National Guard although their current status there isn’t immediately clear, while their father works for the U.S. Postal Service. The trio’s charges — and all of them face each one — include: destruction of government property; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; acts of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. They’re not the first group of members from the same family to be arrested for participating in the Capitol riot.
Investigations surrounding the Capitol riot are continuing to expand, including with recently revealed seditious conspiracy charges against individuals involved with the violent, far-right group known as the Proud Boys. Meanwhile, New York state Attorney General Letitia James seemed to indicate an interest in investigating potential financial fraud after the January 6 committee in the House indicated that the Trump campaign raised huge sums of money from supporters at least in part while claiming it would go to an “official” fund for defending the election — although the fund, as named, didn’t actually exist.
