‘First Battle of War’: Ohio Man Planned to Attend Second Capitol Riot After Jan. 6 Siege, Prosecutors Say

The day after John Douglas Wright stormed the Capitol alongside thousands of MAGA supporters, the 54-year-old issued a promise to his local newspaper: “Yesterday wasn’t the end. Yesterday was the first battle of the war. I promise you.”

Prosecutors allege the Canton, Ohio, resident had every intention to participate in a “war” after the violent Jan. 6 insurrection to stop the electoral certification of President Joe Biden—telling several friends on social media of his plan to assault officers, breach the Capitol, and “commit violence on members of Congress.”

“WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO FIGHT THE BLUE TOMORROW,” Wright wrote to an associate on Jan. 6, according to a newly unsealed criminal complaint. “FROM WHAT I SEEN TONIGHT THE TEMPERS WILL BE UP TOMORROW AND POLICE LINES WILL BE BREACHED.”

Among other violent messages about his alleged intentions for Washington, D.C., was one ominous missive that threatened to “make home visits” during a return on Jan. 17, according to documents filed Monday after his arrest in Ohio. Wright now faces several charges, including engaging in physical violence in a restricted building and disorderly conduct after prosecutors said he was identified in photos and videos that showed him shoving a police barrier before storming the Capitol in a red “Trump 2020” sweater.

According to the court documents, Wright also livestreamed from inside and outside the Capitol on Facebook while someone cried out, “Whose house? Our house!”

Ohio Secretary of State Office business records indicate Wright is the agent and registrar for D AND L Charter, an interstate freight and trucking company that opened in 2011. A LinkedIn account associated with Wright also lists him as a “driver” for the business. An avid Trump supporter, Wright also told a local newspaper he was among the people in a MAGA group in Ohio who heavily contested the outcome of the presidential election and even rallied outside the Stark County Board of Elections for several days.

But while Wright’s recent Facebook activity seems to have been scrubbed, the criminal complaint states he made several posts on his social media account about his plans to “take our country back.”

The complaint states that on the morning of the riots, Wright also privately revealed to a Facebook friend that the “first mistake” lawmakers “make in chambers, we are going in” to “drag them out.”

“HOPE I MAKE IT THROUGH,” Wright wrote in the private message. “I AM IN THE RED HOODIE.”

In the series of stunning messages to another Facebook associate, who suggests capturing people who try to escape through the underground tunnels, Wright responds that it’s “all planned out.”

“IT’S FUCKING WARTIME. NO MORE PROTESTING,” Wright tells a third Facebook friend. In another chat, he admitted to sitting on a bench during the siege and having “a smoke.”

The next day, Wright proceeded to out himself as a Capitol rioter to the Canton Repository, telling the local newspaper that patriots merely stood up for their country during the peaceful protest. He said that while the caravan didn’t hurt anyone, he got “beaten up by cops” and revealed his intentions of returning to the Capitol on Jan. 17 for another protest.

Wright also mentioned that second protest in a Facebook chat, telling an associate on Jan. 8 his intentions of a return to D.C. because “I THINK WE NEED TO MAKE HOME VISITS.”

“It's not about overthrowing the government. It’s about creating a new party,” Wright told the Canton Repository about his intentions to return to the nation’s capital. “We run this country, not them. They work for us.”