Geophysicist Jeffrey Sabol was charged by the feds on eight counts over his role in the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol hill. His charges are more serious that most—he's accused of turning up equipped for a fight, carrying restraints, and with beating one police officer with another officer's stolen baton. But Sabol's case is more interesting than most, too, because after the reality of his predicament sank in he allegedly microwaved his electronics and tried to flee to good old neutral Switzerland. Bail has been denied for what Judge Emmet Sullivan described as "the epitome of a flight risk."
On January 7, 2021, Mr. Sabol returned to his home in Colorado. There, "paranoid that he was going to be charged with sedition," he "fried" electronic devices in his microwave, destroyed anything that could be "misconstrued as antigovernment," and moved two firearms that he kept at his home to an associate's residence.
Between January 9 and 10, 2021, Mr. Sabol traveled from Colorado to Boston, Massachusetts. Id. Mr. Sabol planned to fly from Boston to Switzerland to avoid extradition for any crimes arising from his conduct at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Id. He has admitted to law enforcement that he planned to ski while in Switzerland to make his trip "look natural." Id. But while at the airport in Boston, Mr. Sabol saw police officers and "thought they mentioned his backpack." Id. He left the airport, rented a vehicle, and began driving south. Id. Because Mr. Sabol thought law enforcement was tracking him, he discarded his cell phone out of a window and over a bridge while he was driving.
As Mark noted in January, he's got a great excuse for the mess:
Mr. Sabol maintained, however, that he was trying to assist the officer who he helped drag down the steps, and he was "patting him on the back" and saying "we got you man."
Regarding potentially incriminating statements Sabol earlier made to law enforcement, CNN adds:
His lawyers also said Sabol was "lied to" about the 2020 election by former President Donald Trump as well as Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and longtime political adviser Roger Stone.
