By Joe Johnson
Two Athens area residents were recently arrested for participating in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol that allegedly was orchestrated by groups who believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former president Donald Trump.
According to documents unsealed Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Justice, Nolan Harold Kidd, 21, of Crawford and Savannah Danielle McDonald, 20, of Elberton were arrested in Macon on June 11 on charges of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, and parading, demonstrating or picketing inside the Capital.
The charges are felonies that carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison.
Twelve other Georgians were previously arrested for the Jan. 6 riot in which three police officers and a protestor were killed, and over at least 138 police officers and an unknown number of rioters were injured. Five rioters were hospitalized.
The protestors broke into the Capitol or entered through unlocked doors while the Senate was in session to certify the 306 electoral votes President Joe Biden received, and the 232 electoral votes for Trump.
Photos included in a Statement of Facts document unsealed by the DOJ show Kidd and McDonald among a group that included "QAnon Shaman," Jake Angeli, who was shirtless and wearing a horned helmet while inside the Capitol.
The rioters were heard chanting on widely-broadcast videos,“ hang Mike Pence,” the vice president who was presiding over the Senate vote count.
Rioters occupied and ransacked the Sente chamber, while Capitol police drew their guns to defend the floor of the House of Representatives.
The document indicates that McDonald told agents that she and Kidd "marched to the U.S. Capitol, and when they reached the U.S. Capitol, there were uniformed police officers near the doors telling them to come inside and showing them where to go."
Kidd reportedly told agents that the Capitol’s doors were “wide open" and "we did not break in."
The document quoted Kidd giving a different story in a group Snapchat message from his account that was seized by the FBI:
“We weren’t just there we went farther than almost anyone into the building . . . [m]aybe about top 15 people," and "Me and Savannah are F****** STORMTROOPERS.”