Pennsylvania man Mikhail Edward Slye was arrested this Friday for his participation in last year’s Trump-incited riot at the Capitol, where he tripped a U.S. Capitol Police officer with a metal bike rack in use as a barricade, leaving the affected officer, who was interviewed by investigators, with reported injuries.
Slye also entered the Capitol building itself during the chaos, climbing both in and out through broken windows in the Senate Wing. He was a subject of investigation by the group Sedition Hunters, which is a web-based community of individuals who, as their name suggests, have busied themselves with the identification of Capitol violence participants. In June of last year, a witness noted in a court filing for Slye’s case reported an identification of Slye from social media content shared by Sedition Hunters, although this witness’s past interactions with the newly charged rioter were only brief. A second witness with a longer history with Slye also provided information to the FBI, although the filing doesn’t specify how the agency connected with this individual, who goes unidentified in the document. They have known Slye for over five years, per the FBI.
They were “shown stills and videos of the individual believed to be SLYE from January 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol” and “identified the individual as SLYE,” according to the detailed FBI affidavit which was filed in court. The latter witness, whose interview with the FBI took place in July of this year, also informed investigators of Slye going live on Facebook while in D.C. on January 6, although the video didn’t include his face. Numerous pieces of photographic evidence from the day of the riot, including media content available online and surveillance footage, chronicle his involvement in violence. “When J.T. falls onto the landing, he slides for approximately a foot revealing the force behind the fall,” the affidavit says, referring to the officer Slye tripped amid police attempts to assist other officers trapped in the crowd. “The video only captures a black gloved hand throwing the barrier. After J.T. is tripped, the video pans to the crowd and reveals that SLYE was the individual who threw the barrier.”
Slye’s charges now include two felonies and six misdemeanors. The felonies, including assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers and interfering with a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder, could land him with substantial time in prison if convicted. Slye was at one point sprayed by police with chemical irritants meant as crowd control as he and another rioter angrily confronted certain officers, yelling in their faces and helping prevent them from closing exterior doors at the Capitol to help secure the scene.
NEW: #JackTheTripper Mikail Slye arrested in Pennsylvania. Feds say he "used a bike rack type barricade to intentionally trip a Capitol Police Officer" when officers were trying to rescue another officer in the mob. pic.twitter.com/irnflr1aVy
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) September 30, 2022
Image: Brett Davis/ Creative Commons
