A Marine who said he was waiting for “Civil War 2” and two other active duty military personnel have been charged with taking part in the riot at the US Capitol, authorities said in newly filed court documents.
Micah Coomer, Joshua Abate and Dodge Dale Hellonen were arrested this week on misdemeanor charges after their fellow Marines helped investigators identify them in footage among the pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021, according to court documents.
Dozens of people charged in the riot have military backgrounds, but these three are among the handful on active duty. A Marine Corps officer seen on camera fighting with police and helping other mob members enter the Capitol was indicted in 2021.
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No defense attorneys for the men were listed in the court docket, so it was not immediately clear if they have attorneys to comment on their behalf.
Their service records show that they are all active duty Marines. Maj. Kevin Stephensen, a spokesman for the Marine Corps, said he is aware of the allegations and is “fully cooperating with appropriate authorities in support of the investigation.”
Coomer, from Indiana, is stationed at Camp Pendleton in southern California; Abate, from Virginia, is at Fort Meade in Maryland; and Hellonen, from Michigan, is stationed at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune, according to the Marines.
The men spent about 52 minutes inside the Capitol, authorities say. At one point, while in the roundabout, they put a red hat reading “Make American Great Again” on a statue so they could take photos with it, according to court documents. Hellonen was carrying a flag that read “Don’t tread on me,” authorities said.
Supporters of President Donald Trump attempt to open a gate of the United States Capitol during a protest in Washington, on January 6, 2021.
(AP Photo/José Luis Magaña, File)
Coomer posted photos on Instagram that appeared to have been taken inside the Capitol with the caption “Glad to be a part of history,” according to court documents. Days after the 2020 election, he and another person discussed in an Instagram post how he believed the election had been rigged.
And at the end of January 2021, he told another person in a message that “everything in this country is corrupt.”
“Honestly, we need a fresh reset. I’m waiting for the boogaloo,” Coomer wrote in a detailed message in the court documents. When the person asked what “a boogaloo” is, Coomer replied “Civil war 2,” authorities said.
Boogaloo is an anti-government, pro-gun extremist movement. Its name is a reference to a slang term for a sequel, in this case a second US Civil War. The movement is named after “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo”, a 1984 sequel to a film about breakdancing.
Supporters have turned up at protests over COVID-19 lockdown orders and protests over racial injustice, carrying rifles and wearing tactical gear over Hawaiian shirts. The shirts are a reference to the “big luau”, a riff on the term “boogaloo” sometimes preferred by members of the group.
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During an interview related to his security clearance in June, Abate acknowledged walking through the Capitol with two “friends,” investigators said. Abate said that they “walked and tried not to be hit by tear gas.”
The Pentagon said Abate was assigned to the Marine Cryptologic Support Battalion, which supports the National Security Agency. The NSA, one of the largest intelligence agencies in the US, spies on electronic communications around the world and plays a critical role in deterring cyberattacks and foreign influence operations.
An NSA spokesman declined to answer questions about when the agency learned of Abate’s statement that he had entered the Capitol or whether it took steps before his arrest to restrict his access to classified information.
The trio faces charges including trespassing and disorderly conduct.
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Among the January 6 indictees with military records are members of the far-right extremist group Oath Keepers, accused of conspiring to violently keep President Donald Trump in power. The group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper, was found guilty of seditious conspiracy in November.
A Virginia Army reservist accused of storming the Capitol was convicted this week on charges of illegal possession of silencers disguised to look like harmless cleaning supplies. Hatchet Speed is scheduled to go to trial in his case from January 6 to the end of this year.
And a former US Army reservist described by prosecutors as a Nazi sympathizer was found guilty of storming the Capitol to prevent Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory. Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, who worked as a security contractor at a Navy base, was sentenced to four years in prison in September.
Nearly 1,000 people have so far been charged in the riot and the count is rising by the week. Nearly 500 people have pleaded guilty to riot-related charges and more than three dozen have been convicted at trial.
