Two more Utahns have been arrested and accused of taking part in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Jacob Kyle Wiedrich was arrested Thursday in Salt Lake City, under a warrant issued by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The warrant accuses Wiedrich of four counts involving the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Janet West Buhler was arrested Friday in Salt Lake City under another warrant issued by the D.C. district court. The warrant accuses Buhler of five counts.
They are the sixth and seventh people from Utah arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 riot, which happened as members of Congress gathered to certify the election of President Joe Biden.
Wiedrich, according to a statement of facts filed by an FBI agent, posted two videos on a Snapchat account, under the online name “Jacob Weed.”
In one video, posted Jan. 7, he allegedly describes the difference between what “we” did on Jan. 6 and what Black Lives Matter protesters did the year before. According to the FBI agent, Wiedrich said “we marched to the Capitol, broke a few windows, but we made a statement that we won’t put up with this fraud — the election of 2020.” He also mentions Ashli Babbitt, a protester who was shot and killed in the Capitol that day, the agent wrote.
The second video appears to have been taken near the Washington Monument on Jan. 6, moving with the crowd from Donald Trump’s rally at the Ellipse toward the Capitol. He is seen shouting “it’s wartime!,” the FBI agent writes, and shown arguing with law enforcement at the Capitol. At one point, he complains of being shot with rubber bullets and being tear gassed. He yells “Charge the motherf---er!” as he approaches an open window. Later in the video, the FBI agent wrote, Wiedrich appears inside the building.
The statement also includes images of surveillance footage inside the Capitol, which the FBI agent says shows Wiedrich at the windows and, later, inside the building. The agent writes that the surveillance images are at odds with what Wiedrich told the FBI, which was that he only got 10 feet inside the exterior door before leaving.
Wiedrich is charged with: entering or remaining in a restricted building; disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
Buhler is the stepmother-in-law of Michael Lee Hardin, 50, a retired Salt Lake City police officer who was arrested on similar charges on April 2.
According to a statement of facts written by another FBI agent, Buhler was with Hardin in the Capitol that day. The statement includes screenshots of video of the two of them outside the Capitol Rotunda, and frames of surveillance video of them briefly entering the Senate gallery.
The FBI agent wrote that she showed photos from the Capitol to someone who knew Hardin, and that person identified Buhler. That acquaintance of Hardin also told the agent that Buhler had traveled to Washington with Hardin and entered the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Buhler was also identified by a tipster via a photo from the Capitol that appeared in a Utah news outlet. The agent also compared Capitol photos to photos on Buhler’s Facebook page. And, according to this FBI agent, Buhler’s cellphone pinged in the area of the Capitol building.
Buhler is charged with: knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority; disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building; entering or remaining in the Gallery of Congress; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
Follow @SeanPMeans