Less than two weeks before Donald Trump will be inaugurated, he suggested there were no guns in the possession of Capitol riot participants on Jan. 6, 2021. His comment came soon after he said he’d be considering pardons for some who were convicted of crimes in relation to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
But a review by CBS News shows several Jan. 6 defendants who were charged in connection with the siege were carrying firearms on the Capitol grounds. Some pleaded guilty and acknowledged criminal misconduct. One Illinois man was accused of firing a gun into the air as rioters stormed the Capitol.
Trump has been pressed on whether he plans to pardon those convicted of violent Jan. 6 crimes, including those who pleaded guilty to assaulting or beating police officers. He has declined to talk about how he’ll evaluate pardon requests, but told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” last month he’s “inclined to pardon many” of the defendants immediately upon his inauguration.
When he was asked at a news conference Tuesday about the scope of the pardons for those convicted of assaulting police during the riot, Trump instead argued that there had been no guns among the thousands of his supporters who were part of the Capitol breach.
“There was never charges of insurrection or anything like that,” Trump said of the Jan. 6 riot. “But if there were, this would be the only insurrection in history where people went in as insurrectionists with not one gun.”
The claim was immediately refuted by Rep. Pete Aguilar, a California Democrat who served on the House Jan. 6 select committee probing the assault on the Capitol.
“He is trying to rewrite history and suppress the truth,” Aguilar said.
Aguilar said, “Our report, as well as the Department of Justice reports, continue to show the amount of guns and weapons that were in the D.C. area and on campus and in the building by these violent intruders.”
A CBS News review found a series of cases in which rioters allegedly carried or brandished guns. Some of the court filings submitted by the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., include evidence of guns allegedly in rioters’ possession.
Prosecutors alleged John Banuelos of Illinois was in the riotous mob and “raised his jacket to reveal what appears to be a firearm in his waistband.”
They also claimed “Banuelos can be seen waving the crowd towards him before pulling what appears to be a firearm from his waistband. Prosecutors said in a criminal complaint that open-source media and closed-circuit television captured Banuelos raising the gun over his head and, at approximately 2:34pm, firing two shots in the air.”
Government exhibit
Charging documents include black-and-white photos allegedly showing the firearm in Banuelos’ waistband.
Government exhibit
Banuelos has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for a court appearance on Jan. 17 in Washington, D.C.
Mark Mazza of Indiana, who pleaded guilty in October 2022 to charges connected with the Jan. 6 attack, admitted that he took two firearms to the White House Ellipse, where Trump addressed a crowd of his supporters before many of them marched to the Capitol. The Justice Department, in announcing Mazza’s plea agreement, said that he had “brought a Taurus revolver, loaded with three shotgun shells and two hollow point bullets, into Washington, D.C., to the Ellipse, and then to the Capitol,” adding that He “later admitted to law enforcement that he was also armed with a second firearm, a loaded .40 semi-automatic pistol.”
However, at some point before 2:45 p.m. that day, according to the Justice Department, “Mazza lost possession of the revolver.” Mazza was sentenced to five years in prison for carrying a gun and assaulting police officers.
Christopher Alberts, who is from the Baltimore area, was convicted by a jury in Washington, D.C., of felony and misdemeanor charges including carrying a loaded gun onto Capitol grounds and assaulting law enforcement in his Jan. 6 case. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, which he is serving at a federal penitentiary in Michigan. Prosecutors alleged Alberts, who they said wore body armor and carried a pocketknife during the riot, also had with him “in a holster, a 9-millimeter pistol loaded with 12 rounds of ammunition and an additional bullet in the chamber.”
“Alberts also wore a separate holster containing an additional 12 rounds of ammunition, which included ‘hollow point’ bullets,” the Justice Department said.
According to charging documents, a trial was scheduled for this month in the case of Mark Ibrahim, who was an off-duty U.S. Drug Enforcement administration agent. Court documents alleged Ibrahim, who has pleaded not guilty, showed a DEA badge and firearm during a photograph taken three minutes after he arrived on Capitol grounds.
Government exhibit
The government said in its criminal complaint that the photographs in evidence of Ibrahim’s alleged firearm “are of such high resolution that the serrations on the slide of Ibrahim’s DEA firearm are visible.”
Mario Mares of Texas was found guilty in October for his role in the riot. The Justice Department, in announcing the verdict, said evidence was presented at trial that Mares and others had traveled from Texas to Virginia just before Jan. 6, 2021, “carrying with them various firearms, including both handguns and rifles, as well as ammunition,” according to a Justice Department news release.
“On the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, Mares and others with him attended the rally on the National Mall carrying their handguns on their persons but having left their rifles in Mares’ truck,” the release said. “Afterward, Mares and others walked down toward the U.S. Capitol building between approximately 12:15 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., entered the restricted permitter, and remained on U.S. Capitol grounds until approximately 4:30 p.m., all while carrying their handguns.”
The Justice Department said “an individual with Mares posted to social media a photograph of six firearms, magazines, and the hats that appear to have been worn by Mares and others that day on Capitol grounds.” In the photo, the weapons and hats were shown arrayed across what appears to be a bed at a hotel.
Prosecutors also alleged that Mares had posted on social media that he “‘believe[d] that every #patriot should on January 6 if you can’t make it to Washington DC you should go to your state capitol and local mayors offices heavily armed and drag out and either jail or execute all the known CORRUPT #politicans for treason!'” among other similar sentiments.”
And in one of the first wave of Jan. 6 criminal cases, Lonnie Coffman was accused by the government of driving from Alabama to Washington, D.C., in a pickup truck that “contained several loaded firearms within arms-reach of the driver’s seat,” including a 9mm Hi-Point handgun, a Windham Weaponry rifle and a Hatfield Gun Company SAS shotgun, according to the statement of offense.
Department of Justice
The pickup also contained “hundreds of rounds of ammunition, large-capacity ammunition feeding devices, a crossbow with bolts, machetes, camouflage smoke devices, a stun gun, cloth rags, lighters, a cooler containing eleven mason jars, and other items.” And the government also said that as Coffman walked through D.C., and “in the direction” of the U.S. Capitol and the rally on the national mall on Jan. 6, “he knowingly carried on his person two additional loaded firearms.”
Coffman pleaded guilty to a federal charge of possession of an unregistered firearm and agreed to cooperate with the government on other cases.
