FBI arrests SoCal man on charges related to U.S. Capitol breach

LOS ANGELES — The FBI on Thursday arrested a Huntington Beach man who posted images of himself involved in the breach at the U.S. Capitol on social media.

Mark Simon, a locally known far-right activist, was taken into custody by FBI agents during a dawn search of his home on federal charges of entering the restricted grounds of the Capitol and disorderly or disruptive conduct for allegedly being part of the incursion by supporters of former President Donald Trump.

Simon is alleged to be part of the group that on Jan. 6 forced its way into the building seeking to block Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the November election, according to the criminal complaint. Five people died, including a Capitol Police officer. More than 160 people have been charged and hundreds more remain under investigation, according to federal authorities.

Federal prosecutors allege a video captured Simon passing through the “threshold of the U.S. Capitol building.” An FBI agent wrote in a sworn statement that a video “showed numerous individuals pushing their way into the U.S. Capitol. ... As the individual filming the video approached the doorway to the U.S. Capitol, law enforcement officers inside the U.S. Capitol could be seen attempting to remove individuals from the building.”

The agent said that at one point in the video the man later identified as Simon “turned the camera on himself and said, ‘In the Capitol baby, yeah!’ Shortly thereafter, the individual turned the camera on himself again and said, ‘2021 Donald Trump!’”

The FBI identified Simon after he was recognized by a Huntington Beach police detective from a blog post image as a “known activist in Huntington Beach.”

Simon, 49, was also featured in a story in the farright newspaper Epoch Times, in which he was quoted as saying he attended the rally in support of Trump and to ensure a free and fair election.