Left: Ian MacBride is seen taking a picture of himself inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Right: A picture of an ‘Area Closed’ sign MacBride allegedly took from Capitol grounds on Jan. 6 hangs in MacBride’s bar. (Images via FBI court filings.)
A Pennsylvania man who allegedly threatened to go to Washington, D.C., with “guns blazing” on Jan. 6 and later posted a stolen “Area Closed” sign from Capitol grounds has been arrested.
Ian MacBride, of Douglassville, is facing felony and misdemeanor charges in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Justice Department announced Thursday. MacBride is allegedly one of the thousands of Donald Trump supporters who descended on the Capitol that day as Congress began to certify President Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 election. The riot, which followed Trump’s plea to his supporters to “fight like hell” against the certification, temporarily brought proceedings to a halt and forced lawmakers to either flee the building or shelter in place for hours.
According to prosecutors, MacBride stole a sign posted by U.S. Capitol Police that stated “Area Closed” — and then, like countless other accused Jan. 6 rioters, allegedly bragged about his perceived prize on social media.
“Hung my Capitol battle flags and ill gotten ‘Area Closed’ sign up in my bar tonight,” he posted to an online forum called “Patriots.Win,” prosecutors say. The post was made by someone with the username “PennsylPede1776,” which investigators connected to MacBride.
Prosecutors also linked the picture of the bar to a post that MacBride had apparently made on Instagram.
That post “included an image of the same bar shown in the MacBride Instagram account, with the photo taken from a separate angle, and it showed the green Kekistan flag, the white USCP ‘Area Closed’ sign, in addition to a blue ‘Make America Great Again flag,”” says the probable cause affidavit in support of MacBride’s arrest.
The agent who signed the affidavit wrote that they “understand the phrase ‘Kekistan’ to refer to a fictional country reference in online ‘alt-right’ political discourse.”
Days before Jan. 6, MacBride allegedly signaled his intention to take violent action to stop Biden from taking office.
“So enlighten us. What are we going to do on the 6th to change the outcome of this? Are you coming in hot, guns blazing?” he wrote in a since-deleted post to the “Patriots.Win” forum on Dec. 29, 2020, according to prosecutors. “If not, you’re not doing s— and you’re stuck relying on Pence.”
“We will literally drag them out of the Capitol and shove broom sticks up their a—-,” he also allegedly wrote. “Don’t f—— push us.”
MacBride allegedly is seen scaling the stairs outside the Capitol building along with other rioters. Prosecutors say he entered the building at around 2:18 p.m., just five minutes after the initial violent breach. According to court filings, a loud siren was continuously ringing when MacBride was inside the Capitol, and shattered glass covered the floor near the entryway.
He also is accused of entering the Crypt, where he joined rioters facing off against a line of outnumbered U.S. Capitol Police officers trying to hold the crowd back from going further into the building. The officers were ultimately overwhelmed, prosecutors say, and MacBride was seen following the crowd into a doorway and toward a staircase.
USCP officers eventually led him out of the building, which MacBride exited at around 2:39 p.m.
The next day, MacBride was defiant, prosecutors say.
“It was a total set-up, but I don’t regret my part in occupying the building,” he allegedly posted to an online forum called “Donald.Win” on Jan. 7. “It’s OUR house, and we have every right to be inside it. The people who work there are NOT our masters. They work for us, and they need to be reminded of it.”
MacBride is charged with felony obstruction of an official proceeding, misdemeanor trespassing and disorderly conduct. The obstruction charge carries a potential 20-year prison sentence.
Read the federal government’s Statement of Facts here.
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