John Thomas Gordon, a 47-year-old man from West Virginia, has become one of the latest members of last year’s Trump-incited mob attacking the Capitol to be arrested by federal authorities.
Gordon’s charges include civil disorder, destruction of government property, 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 an act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings. Gordon has “several prior felony convictions in Pennsylvania and West Virginia for drug and firearms offenses,” according to a filing in his case. One of the individuals involved in building the case against Gordon was an apparent former girlfriend of his, with whom he had a child. Gordon informed this now former girlfriend of some of what he did at the Capitol last year.
That individual, identified by the initials “A.A.,” was interviewed by an FBI special agent. “During the interview, A.A. advised that GORDON was the individual pictured in the FBI Most Wanted photograph AFO-218,” according to that filing. “GORDON had told A.A. that he kicked the doors to the U.S. Capitol, to make entry, but he was not able to make entry due to the doors were barred/barricaded. A.A. stated that GORDON also threw what A.A. described as a weighted ball (globe)/yard decoration at windows. A.A. stated that GORDON returned from Washington, D.C. with a trash bag full of his clothing, which was covered in pepper spray. In a subsequent interview, A.A. stated that A.A. had seen a video of GORDON on top of some scaffolding at the U.S. Capitol on January 06, 2021.” In other words: she had a lot of pertinent information to share with federal authorities.
Gordon could be facing a lot of time in prison. Civil disorder, which is a felony offense, comes with up to 8 years, and destruction of government property apparently comes with up to 10 years if the damage inflicted costs greater than $1,000, which applies in this case — assuming prosecutors would seek to hold Gordon responsible for at least that much of the damage to a particular area of the Capitol where he participated in last year’s violence. Gordon helped try to physically damage the North Door of the Capitol so rioters could get inside. “Police officers were on the other side of the glass window in the door, attempting to secure the building,” the Justice Department says. “Gordon repeatedly threw a hard object at the North Door. He also kicked the door in attempts to destroy it to gain entry.” The damage left behind was costly. “The estimated costs to repair the damage to the North Door is more than $1,000,” that court filing in Gordon’s case states.
