GOP activist, one of three from Sacramento area charged in Capitol riot, to stay in jail
A federal magistrate judge refused Wednesday to release one of three Sacramento-area residents accused of taking part in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot in Washington, D.C., saying he is “a man of impulse and poor judgment.”
Jorge Aaron Riley, a Republican activist who has been held in the Sacramento County Main Jail since last week, was ordered to remain in custody and be transferred to Washington, D.C., where he has been charged.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn K. Delaney rejected arguments from Riley’s federal defender that the 42-year-old was is not accused of violence at the Capitol, noting that he made one post after the siege that read “you will all die.”
“The picture that’s being drawn for me is a man who was willing to leave the area, travel an extensive distance to be caught up in this situation,” Delaney said. “I don’t agree with your characterization that he was simply at a peaceful protect making his views known.”
Riley faces a felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding, a misdemeanor count of knowingly entering a restricted building and a petty offense alleging disorderly conduct in the Capitol.
“Based upon what I am seeing, I do not find that Mr. Riley is a good candidate for release, and I am not going to release him,” Delaney said.
‘Donald Trump sent me $600’
Riley’s lawyer maintained that Delaney had no power to order the Sacramento man detained while he awaits trial in federal court in Washington, D.C.
Assistant Federal Defender Tim Zindel argued that the “you will all die” post was aimed at antifa and other activists who allegedly posted threats on Riley’s Facebook page.
He maintained that Riley was simply following the call of then-President Donald Trump “when he entered the U.S. Capitol along with thousands of others who had been called to a rally by the President of the United States, who hoped to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 Presidential election so that he could remain in office.”
The charges Riley faces do not fall within the categories that allow for a detention hearing to be held, Zindel argued, adding that Riley — who until the attempted insurrection by the mob was corresponding secretary of the California Republican Assembly and president of its Sacramento chapter — is not a threat to flee.
“He poses no risk of flight, having been arrested at his home during a widely-publicized effort to identify and arrest persons who entered the Capitol building on January 6,” Zindel wrote in court filings. “The complaint states that he posted his address on Facebook after entering the Capitol along with the comment, ‘I’m right here.’
“And he poses no risk of obstructing justice: the evidence detailed in the complaint consists of his own Facebook postings, a contemporaneous video-recorded interview, and selfies.”
Zindel added during Wednesday’s hearing that Riley has no financial ability to flee, noting that he exists on $750 in monthly disability payments from his eight years’ service in the Army. And Zindel said that when he asked Riley how he afforded his plane ticket to Washington, Riley said, “Donald Trump sent me $600.”
“So, he spent his stimulus money to get there,” Zindel said.
Suspect touted his actions in 150 social media posts
The FBI says Riley can be seen in various social media posts and a video posted on Reddit.com explaining that he and others broke into the building and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office as part of the siege, during which five people died.
“From January 6 through at least January 8, 2021, Riley posted over 150 messages, photographs and videos on his public Facebook account, detailing his actions in Washington, D.C., on January 6,” the FBI’s “statement of facts” said. “In one message on the morning of January 6, Riley posted, in part, ‘I’m here to see what my President called me to DC for. Hello from Sacramento!!!’”
Prosecutors in Sacramento argued that Riley “presents a serious risk of flight,” noting that his alleged actions show he presents “a serious risk of obstructing justice.”
“Indeed, the defendant is alleged to have participated in arguably one of the largest obstruction efforts in the history of the United States,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Heiko Coppola wrote in court filings, adding that Riley is “specifically charged with obstructing, influencing, or impeding any official proceeding — here, the congressional proceedings to certify the 2020 United States Presidential Election.
“And, according to the defendant himself, he did so by storming the Capitol and harassing potential participants in that proceeding, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. A defendant willing to take these extraordinary steps to obstruct the certification of a Presidential election surely poses a serious risk of obstructing justice or intimidating witnesses involved in his own criminal case.”
Coppola also noted that Riley’s activities on Jan. 6 took place while he was awaiting trial in Sacramento on felony child cruelty charges.
Sacramento Superior Court records show Riley was charged in September 2019 with two felony counts involving an 11-year-old boy in his care who suffered “cruel and inhuman corporal punishment.”
A preliminary hearing in that case is set for March 5.
Riley is the only one of three Sacramento-area defendants in the Capitol Riot case who was jailed.
Two other Capitol Riot suspects remain out of custody
Valerie Elaine Ehrke, an Arbuckle home designer, faces misdemeanor counts of entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct and was ordered last week to stay away from Washington, D.C., except for court appearances.
A third defendant, Tommy Frederick Allan of Rocklin, faces three misdemeanors that could net him up to a year in custody: entering and remaining in a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and theft of government property.
Previously sealed court filings say two separate tipsters notified the FBI that Allan had made Facebook posts about his alleged activities. including one that “captured multiple individuals in military style tactical attire in Washington, D.C. with the caption, ‘These are my people. PATRIOTS!’
“Another image (‘IMAGE-2’) was captioned, ‘You don’t want to hear the evidence. Fine! Here (sic) my Roar you f------ communist bastards. Give me freedom or give me death.’”
One informant told the FBI that after Allan returned to Rocklin he deleted his Facebook page and “destroyed documents he removed from the Senate Building in the backyard” of his home, court papers say.
Court documents say Allan is seen on video leaving the Senate chamber with a U.S. flag and that some time later the video showed a uniformed law enforcement officer returning to the chamber carrying a flag “closely resembling the flag Allan carried.”
The FBI says another video shows Allan outside the Capitol carrying documents, including a Senate document that Allan said was “’a letter from Trump’ and was ‘signed by Trump,’ or words to that effect.”
“As Allan displayed the aforementioned letter to the camera, I observed what appeared to be President Trump’s signature at the bottom of the document, which I am familiar with from open source information,” FBI special agent Jeremy Linton wrote. “I observed Allan state to the individual recording (the video) that he had removed the documents in his hand from the desk of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.”
Homeland Security issues new threat warning
More than 150 people have been charged in connection with the siege of the Capitol, and the fallout from the event and political unrest continues.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin warning of a “heightened threat environment across the United States, which DHS believes will persist in the weeks following the successful Presidential Inauguration.”
“Information suggests that some ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence,” the bulletin stated.
The warning was similar to one issued by the FBI after the siege at the Capitol that said armed attacks against Capitols in all 50 states were possible in the days leading up to President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Tight security — including the deployment of 1,000 National Guard troops at California’s Capitol and 25,000 throughout Washington — followed that warning.