Protesters supporting U.S. President Donald Trump break into the U.S. Capitol on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Win McNamee | Getty Pictures
A Dallas-area man who joined a violent mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol earlier this month has been charged with making a loss of life menace in a social media publish in opposition to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Garret Miller, 34, of Richardson, Texas was arrested earlier this week on a number of costs associated to the Capitol riot, according to a federal complaint.
Miller’s lawyer, Clinton Broden, instructed CNBC that the costs in opposition to his consumer had been upgraded to incorporate a menace cost on Tuesday, a day earlier than he was arrested in Richardson. The upgraded cost got here comparatively quickly after the preliminary grievance was filed in Washington, D.C. federal court docket, Broden stated.
The opposite costs embrace getting into or remaining in any restricted buildings or grounds with out lawful authority; violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds; obstructing or impeding any official continuing and sure acts throughout civil dysfunction.
The menace cost in opposition to Miller relies on the declare by prosecutors that he threatened Rep. Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., throughout state strains on social media. It carries a most potential sentence of 5 years in jail.
Miller wrote “Assassinate AOC” in a Twitter publish, in accordance with the grievance. Miller additionally allegedly posted about getting into the Capitol constructing on his Instagram account and admitted that he “had a rope in [his] bag on that day.”
Miller additionally threatened a Capitol Police officer who shot lifeless a lady making an attempt to breach the Capitol constructing in the course of the riot. “We going to come up with [the USCP officer] and hug his neck with a pleasant rope[.],” Miller stated, in accordance with the grievance.
“Mr. Miller regrets the actions he took in a misguided effort to indicate his assist for former President Trump,” Broden stated. “He has the total assist of his household and has at all times been a law-abiding citizen.”
“His social media feedback replicate very ill-considered political hyperbole in very divided instances and will definitely not be repeated sooner or later,” Broden continued. “He seems ahead to placing all of this behind him.”
Broden added that he does not imagine there may be proof that Miller deliberate to hold out the threats.
Miller is because of seem Monday for a detention listening to in Dallas federal court docket. Prosecutors have stated they need him detained pending trial, however Broden stated he’ll argue for Miller’s conditional launch pending trial in Washington.
Ocasio-Cortez responded to the grievance detailing Miller allegedly bragging on-line about his position within the riot, writing in a tweet: “On one hand you need to snort, and on the opposite know that the rationale they had been this brazen is as a result of they thought they had been going to succeed.”
Ocasio-Cortez has beforehand stated she feared for her life during the riot and members of Congress had been “practically assassinated.”
“I didn’t know if I used to be going to make it to the top of that day alive, and never simply in a normal sense but in addition in a really, very particular sense,” the Democratic consultant stated in an Instagram Reside video on Jan. 12, with out elaborating the main points.
