Texas man charged with Capitol threat on Parler arrested before flight from US, feds say
A Texas man accused of threatening an armed takeover of Washington, D.C., was arrested a day before it appeared he might leave the country, federal prosecutors say.
Troy Anthony Smocks, 58, is charged with with knowingly and willfully transmitting threats in interstate commerce, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia said in a news release Friday.
In a Parler post, Smocks threatened to amass a force of President Donald Trump supporters “that no standing army or police agency can match” and descend upon the nation’s capital a day before the presidential inauguration, according to an affidavit written by a D.C. police officer serving on the FBI’s joint terrorism task force.
Smocks flew from Texas to Washington, D.C., a day before a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, prosecutors say.
“Today, January 6th, 2021, We Patriots by the millions have arrived in Washington, DC, carrying banners of support for the greatest President the World has ever known,” Smocks posted, according to authorities. “But if we must…Many of us will return on January 19th, 2021, carrying our weapons in support of Our nation’s resolve, to which the world will never forget. We will come in numbers that no standing army or police agency can match.”
The post was viewed at least 60,926 times on the now-defunct social media site popular among right-wing extremists and conspiracy theorists, according to police.
Amazon kicked Parler off its web-hosting service days after the riot at the Capitol, The Associated Press reported.
The member of the FBI task force said in the affidavit that he watched YouTube videos in which Smocks used the alias “Colonel T Perez” and challenged military veterans to participate in armed protests and taunt protesters unwilling to shoot guns.
In a Parler post the day after the Jan. 6 riot, Smocks said followers should “get our personal affairs in order” and “prepare our weapons, and then go get ‘em,” according to records.
“Lets hunt these cowards down like the Traitors that each of them are,” Smocks posted, authorities say. “We now have the green light. (All) who resist US are enemies of Our Constitution, and must be treated as such. Today, the cowards ran as We took the Capital. They have it back now, only because We left. It wasn’t the building that We wanted. . . it was them!”
Smocks reserved a flight to leave the country to a “foreign country” on Friday, authorities say. He was arrested in Texas a day before the flight.
This story was originally published January 16, 2021 at 2:29 PM with the headline "Texas man charged with Capitol threat on Parler arrested before flight from US, feds say."