Pulaski man admits charge of attack on US Capitol

Carson Rees will later be convicted of the two misdemeanor charges.

In the days following the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, FBI agents received a tip from someone who said that Rees’ Facebook page included a picture of him in a crowd lining the building’s Upper West Terrace, according to records entered federal court in Washington, DC.

The Facebook image was captioned “We’re going in,” an FBI agent wrote in a complaint.

As police began to form a line to clear the rioters from the Rotunda area of ​​the building, Rees walked toward the officers and began yelling obscenities at them.

“Rees continued to verbally abuse the officers as additional rioters joined him in attacking the police line,” according to a statement of facts, which Rees agreed to as part of his guilty plea.

Shortly before 3 p.m., about an hour after the police barriers were breached, surveillance showed that a group of rioters began attacking the officers. At that point, Rees walked away from the crowd and exited the building, according to court documents.

Federal authorities traveled to the suspect’s home in Pulaski in August 2021 to confirm reports that he lived there. After speaking with his mother, agents then went to Rees’ workplace, where he told them that he had “exercised his First Amendment rights” on Jan. 6, the complaint states.

Rees, whose age was not disclosed, was allowed to remain free on bail on Tuesday and faces a maximum sentence of 12 months when he is later sentenced. Two other charges were dropped as part of a plea agreement reached in the case.

More than 1,500 people from across the country — including about a dozen from West Virginia — have been charged with participating in the riot.

In what prosecutors call an attack on democracy, then-President Donald Trump urged a large crowd of supporters who had gathered near the Capitol shortly before the riots began to fight “with all their might” against an election, which he claimed was stolen from him through mass voting fraud.