An Illinois man named William Lewis has been arrested and charged with a series of federal crimes after prosecutors say he joined the January 6, 2021, mobs at the Capitol and used pesticidal spray evidently meant for wasps and hornets against police. His charges include assaulting, resisting, or impeding police and civil disorder, both felonies.
The feds identify three evident instances of Lewis using spray against police. “After the spray incidents, Lewis advanced to the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol grounds,” a Justice Department press release says. “Here, Lewis used what appears to be a police baton to strike and break at least three glass panes of a window located immediately to the right (i.e., north) of the Lower West Terrace Tunnel.” And as has been comprehensively documented, that tunnel is the area where some of the mob’s most intense physical attacks were seen that day.
The list of implements used by participants in the January 6 violence as they attacked police officers and sought others like various government officials is extensive, and throughout the day, that included implements originating with cops. Police riot shields, for instance, were used inside that tunnel at the Lower West Terrace. Other examples include the metal bike racks previously used around the Capitol as an attempted barrier and even a massive sign displaying support for Trump on a metal frame large enough that a small group was required to even move the thing.
These are the people behind whom Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and others are throwing their support when they incessantly uplift January 6 criminal defendants.
The prosecutors driving the case against Trump accusing him of attempted election interference have made repeated ties between the former president and the physical violence of January 6 in court filings. As that case moves towards a trial scheduled for March, prosecutors are indicating they’ll be pointing to the violence in their courtroom arguments, contending that the circumstances demonstrate context relevant to Trump’s alleged election schemes.
