A member of the Trump-incited mob that attacked the Capitol early last year who wielded a stun gun that he briefly fired up before passing off to other riot participants — one of whom later attempted to use the weapon in an assault on police — has been arrested and charged with a series of federal crimes.
The individual prosecutions of participants in the Capitol violence are not the responsibility of recently selected Special Counsel Jack Smith, but both these investigations and the probes Smith is handling are moving forward aggressively. In this case, Alabama resident Bryan Shawn Smith was charged with impeding officers during a civil disorder, along with federal trespassing and disorderly conduct offenses. Smith participated in violence stretching across at least an hour in and around the Lower West Terrace tunnel at the Capitol, where several officers who have been outspoken about their experiences that day were attacked and injured. Smith was participating in affronts against officers as early as 2:10 pm, which is shortly before the building itself was breached elsewhere and at which point Smith was already in the general area, and he went into the tunnel — not for the first time — a little over an hour afterwards.
The riot participant who eventually obtained the stun gun originating with Smith and sought to use it against police has already been separately charged for participating in the violence. As for Smith, a filing in his case made as last month ended notes that authorities used both surveillance of what was identified as Smith’s residence and interviews with individuals who knew him in establishing his involvement in the Capitol chaos. The same filing notes that Smith — who was apparently wearing an Army name tag containing his identity at the Capitol — seemingly sought to encourage others in the mob. After one of the instances when he left the Lower West Terrace tunnel, he “pumped his fist in an apparent effort to inspire others in the large crowd to press into the tunnel and continue the riot,” as an FBI agent explained. At another instance, he sought to hold open a door in scaffolding outside of the Capitol building and stuck around even after facing a law enforcement demand to back off.
Not much detail on how the feds initially IDed #ArmySmith, but he was wearing an Army name tag featuring his last name, so that probably helped. https://t.co/NZynLXdsoe pic.twitter.com/wXThmeVDpL
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) December 14, 2022
