A participant in the 2021 Trump-incited Capitol attack who admitted to federal authorities he was there — and admitted he brought his elderly mother with him into what was essentially the thick of the violence — was arrested.
The new defendant is Kyle Kumer of Missouri, who went — with his mother — into the tunnel at the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace, which has come up time and again in reports on that day’s events. It was a site of especially intense violence like the attack by members of the rioting crowd on then-officer Michael Fanone, who essentially nearly died. And Kumer brought his mom! “KUMER claimed he was pushing against the crowd to protect his elderly mother from injury,” a filing in his case says, paraphrasing a defendant interview. “KUMER stated he brought his elderly mother to the tunnel to fully experience the moment.”
Kumer is now facing both felony and misdemeanor charges. In that tunnel, he participated in some of the rioters’ efforts to break through police lines by moving their bodies back and forth in rhythmic unison. It sounds like he was mostly if not entirely behind other rioters in the tunnel rather than among those who made it to the front, where Daniel Hodges was injured. In specific, his felony charge is civil disorder, which has repeatedly emerged in riot cases.
Kumer’s defense of just trying to protect his mother isn’t particularly compelling, as he was also — to be clear — physically joining the pushes against officers and was shouting in support. (This is all per prosecutors.) It remains notable that new arrests in criminal cases stemming from the Capitol attack continue even what’s approaching two and a half years after January 6. And Republicans like Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene continue to in broad terms stick by the participants in that assault. Meanwhile, there have also been rumors about Trump potentially facing more criminal charges in the classified documents investigation at the Justice Department while also facing continued legal vulnerability in the January 6-tied probe also there.
