A retired New Jersey state trooper, who the FBI says was among the first Jan. 6 rioters to breach police barricades and storm the U.S. Capitol, claimed he entered the building but only because he really needed to use the men’s room. That’s according to a newly unsealed criminal complaint charging Michael Daniele of Holmdel, New Jersey, with five felony and misdemeanor counts for his alleged actions as part of a pro-Trump mob trying to interrupt Joe Biden’s certification as president-elect. When FBI agents interviewed Daniele at his home on April 19, 2021, the complaint says he “admitted that he ultimately entered the Capitol building through a broken doorway that was next to a broken window… [but] only entered one large space of the building and after looking for a bathroom and not finding one, left immediately thereafter.” He was inside the building for roughly seven minutes, according to the complaint.

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia