WASHINGTON — New footage captured by a New Yorker Magazine contributor during the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol shows in new detail what members of the mob were doing inside the Senate Chamber – including a moment where an outnumbered Capitol Police officer tried to get them to leave.
The footage was captured on a cell phone by reporter Luke Mogelson. It was posted by the New Yorker on Sunday.
The edited recording, which runs about 12-and-a-half minutes, documents activities outside the Capitol Building while the mob was still clashing with police and then follows them inside.
In one particularly surreal exchange, a lone Capitol Police officer stands in the Senate Chamber with a member of the mob who’d been shot in the face with a pellet gun and Jacob Chansley (also known as Jake Angeli or the “QAnon Shaman”). The officer attempts to get them to leave, saying the chamber is “the sacredest place.”
When one of the mob asks the officer why he doesn’t do his job and force them to leave, he points out that he’s outnumbered 5-to-1.
“I’m making sure you guys don’t do anything else,” he says.
Later, still in the Senate Chamber, Mogelson captures people rifling through and photographing documents left by fleeing Senators, with one saying, “I think [Sen. Ted] Cruz would want us to do this, so we’re good.”
A large group then holds an impromptu prayer – with Chansley leading from the Senate president’s seat – thanking God for, “Being the inspiration needed to these police officers to allow us into the building… to allow us to send a message.”
At other points in the video, members of the mob who breached the building tell police, “We support you guys. We know you’re just doing your job.”
That footage is contrasted by other moments caught by Mogelson in which rioters chant “[Expletive] the police!” and threaten officers inside the building, saying, “If you do not stand down… there are a [expletive] million of us out there, and we are listening to Trump, your boss.”
Dozens of police officers were injured during the Capitol breach, including D.C. Police Officer Mike Fanone, who suffered a heart attack after being dragged into the crowd and repeatedly beaten and tased. Two Capitol Police officers – Officer Brian Sicknick and Officer Howard Liebengood – died following the breach.
More than 60 people – including Chansley – have now been charged by federal prosecutors in connection with the events at the Capitol. Those charges range from conspiracy to entering a restricted building to assaulting law enforcement.