WASHINGTON — A Washington state man accused of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot will remain in jail over the weekend after he was arrested Thursday in possession of weapons near former President Barack Obama's D.C. home.
Taylor Taranto, 37, of Seattle, was taken into custody on a preliminary charge of being a fugitive from justice pursuant to an arrest warrant stemming from his alleged participation in the riot, DC Police officials told WUSA9. Arresting officers requested an explosive ordnance disposal team sweep the van where Taranto was reportedly living. During an initial appearance before a federal magistrate judge on Friday, prosecutors said police found two guns, 400 rounds of ammunition and a machete in the vehicle.
During an initial appearance Friday, federal prosecutors asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Harvey to find Taranto was a flight risk and order him held without bond. Harvey acquiesced, at least temporarily, and ordered Taranto detained over the weekend until he could hold a detention hearing on Wednesday. Harvey also expressed concerns about Taranto's mental state and filed a mental health notice on Taranto's behalf with the D.C. Department of Corrections, according to the court docket.
Taranto has uploaded videos to his YouTube page purporting to show him inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 near the Speaker's Lobby where Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot. He had also uploaded videos about the nightly vigils outside the D.C. Jail in support of detained Jan. 6 defendants, which he had reportedly participated in over the past several weeks until he was recently asked to leave.
“He was asked not to come back to the vigil after he did an interview saying he believed Ashli was not really dead,” Nicole Reffitt, a vigil organizer and the wife of convicted Jan. 6 defendant Guy Reffitt, told WUSA9.
Despite his public statements about participating in Jan. 6 — and being named in a civil suit by the widow of DC Police Officer Jeffrey Smith, who took his own life after the riot — Taranto had not been charged until this week. According to charging documents unsealed Friday, the Department of Justice had been reviewing claims by Taranto that he was a member of the press until June 14, when the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. received confirmation that the DOJ did not consider him a member of the news media.
The charging documents contain a screenshot of a post Taranto made to his Facebook account admitting he was inside the Capitol and seeming to dare federal authorities to arrest him.
"This is me 'stormin' the the capitol lol," Taranto wrote. "I'm only sharing this so someone will report me to the feds and we can get this party rolling!"
Taranto faces four misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and entering and remaining in a restricted building. He could also potentially face additional local charges for the weapons allegedly found in his van. The Associated Press reported Thursday that Taranto had also recently made social media threats toward a public figure.