WASHINGTON — A former member of the Ohio Nationwide Guard, who investigators stated went AWOL after President Joe Biden received the 2020 presidential election, was arrested by the FBI on Tuesday and charged with assaulting officers on the Capitol in the course of the Jan. 6 assault.
Matthew Honigford, a 31-year-old from Delphos, Ohio, was arrested in his house state on Tuesday and faces three felony counts, together with two counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding sure officers and one depend of civil dysfunction, together with a number of misdemeanors.
Video cited by the federal government reveals the person recognized as Honigford held a flagpole horizontally and pushed it into an officer after berating the officers on the west aspect of the Capitol, the place among the worst violence happened. One of many males standing alongside Honigford across the time of the assault — Taylor James Johnatakis — was convicted of a number of expenses on Tuesday.
Honigford, investigators stated in an FBI affidavit, beforehand “stopped attending drill weekends” after Biden’s 2020 electoral victory over Donald Trump, with Honigford “stating that his sister was sick and he wanted to be accessible to assist her and that he didn’t belief the present state of the nation following the election of Joe Biden as president.” A witness stated Honigford “was reported Absent With out Go away however permitted to stay within the Ohio Military Nationwide Guard till his Expiration Time period of Service date on March 14, 2022.”
Video seen by NBC Information reveals the person recognized as Honigford making sexually specific feedback about former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi in addition to making feedback about Pelosi’s love of Jeni’s ice cream and the price of her freezer, the latter of which was a topic of a number of consideration from right-wing web sites in 2020 after Pelosi appeared on The Late Late Present with James Cordon in Nov. 2020.
“They do not wish to dangle any of you,” the person recognized as Honigford instructed officers on video. “They wish to dangle these c–ksuckers inside this constructing, who scurried like cockroaches after we began to storm.”
“You are going to be preventing in your life tonight,” the person instructed officers. “In case you maintain this up, you can be preventing in your life this night time.”
The person recognized as Honigford, one video cited by the federal government reveals, instructed officers he wished to wish for them earlier than, seconds later, attacking the police line. The FBI stated Honigford “squatted and grabbed the center rack part of the barrier together with his proper hand, showing to realize a stronger grip on the barrier” after which “used his physique to push the boundaries in opposition to the regulation enforcement line.” He quickly kicked a steel barrier in direction of an officer after which “instructed different rioters to ‘pull it down’ and carried one of many boundaries into the gang away from regulation enforcement,” in line with the FBI.
“Guys there’s 1,000,000 folks right here!” he stated in a single video, wildly overestimating the scale of the gang on Jan. 6. “One million!”
“That is the autumn of your nation, and also you’re going to cease us?” the person recognized as Honigford stated in one other video reviewed by NBC Information.
One other Nationwide Guardsman, Gregory Yetman, set off an FBI manhunt after he fled when regulation enforcement confirmed as much as his house earlier this month. He surrendered after about 48 hours.
Greater than 1,200 folks have been charged in reference to the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, and greater than 400 have been sentenced to intervals of incarceration.
