Feds: Man took papers from McConnell's desk during riot
A California man has become the third Northern California resident arrested for their roles in the violent siege of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Tommy Fredrick Allan is accused of, among other things, taking papers from then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's desk, according to a complaint filed in federal court in the District of Columbia.
Allan lives in the 34-county Eastern District of California, which includes Shasta County and spans from the California-Oregon border south to Bakersfield and east to the California-Nevada border.
Allan flew from Sacramento to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5 and returned to Sacramento on Jan. 7, according to the complaint.
He was arrested Jan. 22 after FBI investigators received tips from two individuals about Allan's alleged involvement.
Valerie Elaine Ehrke, of Arbuckle, and Jorge Riley, of Sacramento, also have been arrested. Riley was the corresponding secretary of the California Republican Assembly before being forced to resign.
Former President Donald Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 sending Congress into lockdown. The violent attempt to overturn the election came the day Congress was scheduled to certify President Joe Biden's victory over Trump. The certification didn't resume until hours later.
Five people, including Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, died, and dozens of arrests have already been made.
Like Ehrke and Riley, investigators used social media posts to help in the arrest of Allan.
Of the more than 100 people facing federal charges in connection to the siege, at least 71 cases have involved photos, posts or footage from social media, USA TODAY reported on Monday.
One of the anonymous tipsters submitted four images described as postings to a Facebook account with the user name “Tommy Allan” to an FBI tip website, investigators said.
“This guy named Tommy Allan had several personal videos posted from the Trump Rally that shows them leaving and saying they are going to storm the Capitol, he then has one of them breaking windows and some footage from actually inside the Capitol building, talking to Capitol police. He also shared a disturbing post that said the next step of the Insurrection was to get rid of (Chief) Justice (John) Roberts,” the person posted on the tip website.
The person also said that Allan's Facebook page had a video that showed the breaking of windows at the Capitol building and video footage from what was believed to be inside the Capitol, the complaint said.
Another person told the FBI that Allan “stated that he climbed a rope on the wall of the Capitol grounds to gain entry,” investigators said.
This person later learned that Allan removed his Facebook page “and destroyed documents he removed from the Senate Building in the backyard of his Rocklin, California, home,” the complaint said.
Meanwhile, an FBI investigator watched a video from another Facebook user that showed Allan standing outside the Capitol holding documents, one of which stated: “Senate of the United States, One Hundred Seventeenth Congress, Calendar of Business, Wednesday, January 6, 2021.”
“I observed ALLAN state to the individual recording VIDEO-2 that he had removed the documents in his hand from the desk of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell,” the complaint said.