WASHINGTON: Dozens of the more than 500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot have been accused in court documents of attempting to delete photos and other content from their phones and social media accounts to hide their participation in the mob attack.
According to an analysis by media, at least 49 people charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia have been accused of attempting to erase online and mobile phone content from Jan. 6. Investigators have been able to track down many of the pro-Trump rioters through photos and videos posted to social media, as well as security footage and phone data placing individuals in and around the Capitol building at the time of the attack.
However, the media noted that only a handful of riot defendants have actually been charged with tampering evidence in connection with their deletion of material from phones and social media accounts.
Tampering with documents or proceedings was one of the charges levied against several alleged members of the right-wing paramilitary group the Oath Keepers in a superseding indictment earlier this year, which included additional crimes like conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding and destruction of government property.
According to prosecutors, one defendant told Mark Grods, the second Oath Keepers member to plead guilty to conspiracy in connection with the riot, that he should “make sure that all signal comms about the op has been deleted and burned.”
Additionally, prosecutors said in court documents that the alleged Oath Keeper member and Navy veteran Thomas Caldwell between Jan. 6 and Jan. 16 “did corruptly alter, destroy, mutilate, and conceal a record, document, and other object.