Christopher Douglas Finney (Screenshots from court documents)
A New York man who filmed himself boasting, “We’ve done it! We are here!” as he entered the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection was arrested when FBI agents linked his militia chat group screen name “Chris Patriot” from the cellphone of another rioter facing charges, authorities said.
Christopher Douglas Finney, 32, is charged with obstruction of an official proceeding and civil disorder, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release.
He also faces several misdemeanor offenses that include knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
According to court documents, Finney traveled from his home in Hopewell Junction to Washington, D.C., for the “Stop the Steal” rally, where rioters subsequently disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election win.
Court documents outline Finney’s alleged participation in the insurrection and how he was caught after FBI agents searched the phone of another man charged in the Capitol breach and found messages in a militia chat group from an individual with the screen name “Chris Patriot” on a number subscribed to Finney.
The court documents list items he allegedly bought with his then girlfriend’s credit card at a Home Depot in New York before the riots: a Cyclone lightweight plate carrier vest, 3M Scotchguard Anti-Fog Goggles, CE 36-inch Plenum Cable Ties, and HDX 11-inch Bulk UV Resist Zip Ties.
Finney allegedly took cellphone video documenting his trip to the nation’s Capitol. Wearing a black baseball cap, goggles with a red border, a hand-held radio, and a protective plate carrier vest, he was near the Washington Monument on the morning of Jan. 6, but he couldn’t remember the name of the Capitol Building.
“We’re gonna be going up to, where they’re — what’s the building where they’re doing the counting at?” he says in one video, court documents said.
Someone off-camera says, “the Capitol” and Finney continues, “we’re going up to the Capitol, eventually. We’re gonna storm the Capitol. They’re not gonna keep us outta there. We’re gonna make sure that this is done correct and that Donald Trump is still our president.”
“We’re not gonna back down, stand down, we the people will not be silent anymore,” he adds.
Later, he’s seen on surveillance video addressing a crowd through a megaphone outside the fenced boundary of the Capitol’s restricted area, court documents said. About four minutes after he appears, the video records an off-camera reaction — “Oh s—, they got in” — as rioters breach the Capitol grounds.
“We’re storming the Capitol right now,” says Finney, in a face mask printed with a skull. “We just broke over the fence. As you can see, we have many many many people, millions of people, storming the lawn right now to the Capitol building. We started tearing down the fence; this is all fence right here as you can see. We’re going in there. Let’s go.”
Finney crosses the Capitol’s west lawn and scales a stone wall reinforced with fencing, saying “patriots” had accessed the southwest bleachers on the Capitol’s West Front, court documents said.
Finney allegedly shouts in outrage when U.S. Capitol police arrest an intruder on those bleachers. He expresses outrage that the police were detaining rioters and trying to control the crowd with pepper spray and flash grenades, calling such measures by “the riot squad” “pathetic” for “trying to disperse us.”
Footage from an officer’s body camera captures him facing a line of officers near the southwest bleachers. He retreated into the crowd from the police line, made his way to a media tower facing the center of the Capitol’s West Front, and reached scaffolding at the northwest corner of the Capitol’s West Front, documents said.
As Finney neared the entrance to the scaffolding, other rioters were tearing off the tarp that covered the scaffolding, exposing steps underneath that led to the Capitol’s Upper West Terrace.
“The wall is breached!” a rioter shouts.
Finney narrates: “So, we’re right up front now. They’re shooting paintballs at us. They’re shooting s— at — watch out! Watch out for the mace!” he says, pointing at an officer after coughing.
“We’ve all been sprayed. We can’t breathe, but we’re still movin’ forward. My face is on fire right now. … It hurts so bad right now, but we’re not gonna stop. We’re gonna keep movin’ forward …”
A siren is heard.
“I think we have people in!” he says.
He enters the scaffolding and climbs the steps beneath the scaffolding with the crowd.
“We’re makin’ it in. They can’t stop it. We will not back down, we will not be scared! We the people will not be stopped, we will not be stopped!”
He surged past the police line, over the steps and past bike-rack barriers onto the Upper West Terrace, authorities said.
“We’ve done it! We are here!” he says. “We have made it; we have made it to the Capitol.”
“Patriots, we have made it,” he continued as he approached the Senate Wing doors. “We are where they are counting.”
After turning to record other rioters rushing toward the doors, he says, “they’re breaking windows and s—, that’s not right” before saying, “this is 1776, all over again.”
He entered the Capitol at 2:14 p.m., quickly went back outside, and shouted angrily that “they” were shooting “patriots” in the Capitol before going back inside, court documents said.
Later, he allegedly says on recorded video, “From what I heard, Biden was certified; that’s bulls—. We’re not going to allow it. So, I love you guys. We’re gonna keep on fighting. We’re here. We’re not gonna give up. Be safe, everyone.”
Another video showed Finney with a view of makeshift weapons other rioters were attempting to deploy against a line of police officers preventing entry into the tunnel, court documents said.
“Push! Push! Push!” one rioter shouts to the crowd.
As the crowd pushed, another rioter threw an object emitting smoke at officers at the front of the tunnel.
Finney retreats down the steps as the entrance to the tunnel filled with smoke. His video shows a rioter throwing a broken piece of furniture at officers, another striking at officers with a baseball bat and a third making off with an officer’s riot shield.
A long wooden pole is passed in front of Finney as he faces the archway, and his gloved hand assists in passing the pole closer to the police line as a voice says, “Pass it up, pass it up,” before another rioter tosses it at police. A rioter jabs at officers with a pole, and other rioters beat officers with a bat and a riot shield.
Finney was arrested in Hopewell Junction on Thursday and will make a first appearance in the Southern District of New York.
It was unclear whether Finney has retained an attorney.
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