A gentleman couldn't help but brag to an Uber driver who picked him up from the Capitol on January 6, 2021. When asked if the mob at the Capitol had been violent all day, the passenger, who only went by the name of "Jerry," said, "Well, it started around right when I got there … I tore down the barricades."
When the driver asked why he did that, Jerry said, "Well, because, so we could get to the Capitol."
After dropping off Jerry at a hotel in Arlington, Virginia, the Uber driver tipped off the FBI. But with only a first name, physical description (white beard, fresh wound near his right eye), and dash cam footage of their conversation, it took 15 months to arrest him. And he admits he is guilty of "everything."
From The Washington Post:
With only a first name and footage from the car's camera, agents reviewed reservation records at a Holiday Inn in Arlington, Va., where Braun had been dropped off after the Capitol siege. He had checked in as "JD Braun" and provided an address in South El Monte, Calif., court records state. …
Bauers said federal agents found several Internet images of "an individual with a white beard, wearing a black face mask covering his nose and chin, black sunglasses, a black beanie hat, black gloves, and a dark colored jacket with a hood." Enlarging such photos provided the next clue: a piece of paper reading "shotgunshock" and "Ask For JD," court records show.
Shotgun Shock has sold motorcycle air suspension systems for 20 years. Investigators matched the business's email address with the one Braun used for his telephone and Uber accounts,according to the complaint. …
One video showed Braun in the Capitol's restricted area "physically struggling with law-enforcement officers using a barricade," Bauers wrote. Another video showed Braun in an altercation with a journalist, wielding what appeared to be an eight-foot-tall wooden plank, according to the affidavit.
"BRAUN extends the wood plank and physically strikes [the photographer] and appears to be taking photographs with a camera," the affidavit reads. "BRAUN and the photographer appear to exchange words. BRAUN then strikes the photographer with his left hand, and subsequently strikes the photographer once more with the wood plank." …
When agents asked Braun during the search whether there was anything he wanted to tell them, he responded with a single word: "Guilty," he told the agents.
"When asked what he was guilty of, BRAUN responded, 'Everything,' " according to the affidavit.
Braun faces three charges, including "violent entry or disorderly conduct, obstruction during civil disorder, and entering and remaining on restricted grounds."
