Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Confederate flag photo at Capitol riot leads to man’s arrest
A Delaware man photographed carrying a Confederate battle flag during a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol was arrested Thursday after authorities used the image to help identify him, federal prosecutors said.
A news release from the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia said Kevin Seefried, who was seen carrying the flag, was arrested with his son, Hunter Seefried, in Delaware. Prosecutors said both entered the Senate Building through a broken window before Kevin Seefried was seen carrying the Confederate flag in photos that caught attention from news outlets and social media.
Both were charged with unlawfully entering a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and degradation of government property.
They were part of a larger group that verbally confronted members of the Capitol police over a 15-minute span and were documented on surveillance video, according to court documents written by an FBI special agent.
The men were identified after the FBI was told by a co-worker of Hunter Seefried that he had bragged about being in the Capitol with his father, court documents say. The FBI agent wrote that authorities compared Kevin Seefried’s driver’s license photo to images of him carrying the flag during the riot to confirm his identity.
They both spoke voluntarily to the FBI on Tuesday and admitted they had been present at the riot, according to court documents.
Information on whether the men have attorneys who can speak for them couldn’t immediately be found in electronic court records. A phone listing for the two men in Delaware rang unanswered Thursday afternoon.
Family separation: Justice Department leaders under President Donald Trump knew their 2018 “zero tolerance” border policy would result in family separations but pressed on with prosecutions even as other agencies became overwhelmed with migrants, a government watchdog report released Thursday has found.
The report from the inspector general for the Justice Department found that leadership failed to prepare to implement the policy or manage the fallout, which resulted in more than 3,000 family separations during “zero tolerance” and caused lasting emotional damage to children who were taken from their parents at the border. The policy was widely condemned by world leaders, religious groups and lawmakers in the U.S. as cruel.
President-elect Joe Biden has said Trump’s restrictive immigration policies are harmful, but it’s not clear yet what he will do when he gets in office to alter the system. About 5,500 children have been separated from their parents since Trump took office, and many of those parents were deported without their children.