Qns. GOP big cuffed in D.C. riot
Bragged of leading ‘Trump’s Hometown District’
A Queens Republican leader proud of representing what he called “Trump’s Hometown District” was busted for taking part in the U.S. Capitol siege.
Phillip Grillo, 46, was arrested by the FBI on Monday and was charged for storming the halls of Congress during the Jan. 6 insurrection incited by then-President Donald Trump that left a police officer and several rioters dead.
Grillo, a leader in Queens Republicans’ 24th District, was identified by two people who saw him in CNN coverage and said they’d known him for decades in Glen Oaks, a neighborhood on the borough’s Nassau County border.
Trump grew up in Jamaica Estates, several miles west of Glen Oaks.
Grillo was caught on camera climbing through a broken window to gain access to the U.S. Capitol building around 2:20 p.m., said prosecutors.
He then moved all over the
Capitol building wearing a Knights of Columbus jacket that said “Glen Oaks” on it, according to the feds. He took videos of himself and carried a megaphone with him, prosecutors said.
He was also part of a crowd that pushed against three Capitol police officers who were barring their entry to the Capitol’s rotunda.
Surveillance footage showed the group eventually pushed through and gave rioters access to the area.
Grillo was released by Federal Judge Robert Levy on a $100,000 bond signed by his mother and uncle Tuesday in Brooklyn. He will be staying at his mother’s house, where he was living before his arrest.
He covered his face with a sweatshirt as he left court.
When asked what he was doing at the Capitol, Grillo unleashed a tirade on reporters.
“None of your motherf—king business, you fake news f—ks,” he yelled.
His case will be prosecuted, like the other Capitol arrest cases, by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington.
Eileen Grillo, his mother, learned of her son’s arrest from a Daily News reporter. She said she knew her son was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, but was not aware that he took part in the riots or entered the building.
“He loves all that Republican stuff, but that’s not his whole character,” she said, noting he has a son.
“If the charges against him are proven to be true, than he should resign and pay the price for the crimes he allegedly committed,” said Eric Ulrich, a Republican city councilman in Queens who has known Grillo for years.
“I always knew him to be a die-hard party leader, but I never thought he’d be capable of being a part of an insurrection.”