The officer, Michael Angelo Riley, has worked for the Capitol Police for nearly 25 years, the department told NPR, and most recently served as a technician with the K-9 unit.
During the Jan. 6 siege, Riley was not inside the Capitol building, court papers state, but was instead responding to reports of explosives by the headquarters for the Democratic and Republican parties.
The day after the attack, according to an indictment filed in federal court, Riley sent a message to one of his Facebook friends, who had posted selfie-style photos from inside the Capitol building and discussed their participation in the riot.
“Im [sic] a capitol police officer who agrees with your political stance,” Riley allegedly wrote to the suspect, whom the indictment does not name. “Take down the part about being in the building they are currently investigating and everyone who was in the building is going to [be] charged. Just looking out!”
The suspect then allegedly sent multiple videos of themself in and around the Capitol building to Riley. There is no indication in the indictment that Riley shared any of this information with investigators from his own department or the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Rather, court papers state, Riley responded to the suspect, “Just wanted to give you a heads up…Im [sic] glad you got out of there unscathed. We had over 50 officers hurt, some pretty bad.” (In fact, more than 150 officers were injured in the Capitol riot.)
Over the course of the next several days, Riley and the suspect allegedly sent dozens of messages back and forth and spoke on the phone at least once. In one message cited in the indictment, Riley instructed the suspect to, “get off of social media.”
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