Man in custody after Uber driver reports riot boast

FBI investigation compared Capitol images, car’s video

FBI agents navigated a maze of information, pouring over terabytes of photos and videos, as well as telephone, email and business account records and interviews — all stemming from the driver’s tip identifying Braun as “Jerry Last Name Unknown,” according to an affidavit.

When night fell on Jan. 6, 2021, Jerry Braun waited for his Uber ride, but hours before, he had stormed the Capitol and even whacked a reporter with a wooden plank, prosecutors allege.

A driver picked him up in downtown Washington, D.C., around 7 p.m., immediately noticing a bleeding wound near Braun’s eye. In an exchange that was caught by a camera mounted inside the car, the driver asked the white-bearded man, “So, has it been violent all day?”

“Well, it started around, right when I got there,” Braun responded, according to court records. “I tore down the barricades.”

The recorded conversation prompted a 15-monthlong investigation that concluded April 12 with Braun arrested on charges of violent entry or disorderly conduct, obstruction during civil disorder, and entering and remaining on restricted grounds, according to court records unsealed Tuesday.

FBI agents navigated a maze of information, pouring over terabytes of photos and videos, as well as telephone, email and business account records and interviews — all stemming from the driver’s tip identifying Braun as “Jerry Last Name Unknown,” according to an affidavit.

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.

Officials then compared a California Department of Motor Vehicles photo for a Jerry Braun with those provided by the Uber driver — which appeared “to show a positive match for the same individual,” FBI special agent Lucas Bauers wrote in an affidavit.

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.

Braun’s alleged role in the violent uprising came to light with body-cam footage from D.C. police officers.

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 8-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.”

He also moved “the wood plank towards law enforcement officers in an aggressive manner,” court records state.

The FBI executed a search warrant at Braun’s California residence on Nov. 8, 2021. Agents found the black clothing he had worn while breaching the Capitol, according to court records. Braun’s cellphone, which was seized, had a selfie of his eye wound he called a “Souvenir from DC,” prosecutors said.

In one text sent shortly after the siege, Braun allegedly said the mob “tried to stop the steal but they wouldn’t let us in.” In others, he described how he had “Occupied the capitol” and engaged in “Hand to hand combat,” according to court records.

When agents asked Braun during the search if 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’s attorney, John Machado, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Court records show Braun was released on bond and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for June 23.

Braun is the latest accused rioter to be arrested. According to prosecutors, video evidence shows that nearly 140 officers were met with 1,000 assaults, The Washington Post previously reported.

Officials believe that more than 2,000 people could face charges related to entering the Capitol or attacking officers. So far, about 800 people have been charged, of which more than 250 have pleaded guilty.

During Braun’s ride on Jan. 6, he allegedly told his driver that he had torn down barricades to enter the Capitol. The driver asked, “Well, how’d that work out for ya?”

“Well, it looks like, uh, Biden’s gonna be our president,” Braun responded, according to the charging documents.