California man charged in Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot flees to Belarus

Authored by reuters.com and submitted by Doctor420Strange69
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Police release tear gas into a crowd of pro-Trump protesters during clashes at a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by the U.S. Congress, at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, U.S, January 6, 2021. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo

WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - A California man charged with assaulting police in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and using a metal barricade as a battering ram has fled the United States and is believed to have taken refuge in Belarus, federal prosecutors said on Friday.

Evan Neumann, 49, was indicted on Friday on 14 criminal counts stemming from the deadly Capitol siege by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, expanding on charges originally contained in a criminal complaint filed against Neumann in March.

Neumann, of Mill Valley, California, near San Francisco, was seen in video footage donning a gas mask while standing near police in front of barricades set up at the base of the West Front of the Capitol Building, prosecutors said in a statement.

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According to documents filed in the case, Neumann later removes his gas mask and shouts at the police, "I'm willing to die, are you?" before he physically assaults several officers and rushes into them using a barricade as a battering ram.

Neumann, who has yet to make a court appearance in the case, fled from the United States on Feb. 16 and "is currently believed to be in Belarus," the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia said in a statement.

According to an account published by news outlet the Daily Beast, Neumann was featured last month in a Belarusian state television special titled "Goodbye, America," recounting his journey to the former Soviet republic and its capital, Minsk.

He said on the program that he was seeking political asylum in Belarus because the United States, in his opinion, is no longer a country of law and order, the Daily Beast reported.

Neumann is one of more than 220 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, which disrupted a joint session of Congress meeting to formally certify the November 2020 presidential election victory of Democrat Joe Biden over Trump, the Republican incumbent.

Neumann is believed to be the only international fugitive charged in connection with the Capitol riot.

The siege followed a rally near the White House earlier that day in which Trump exhorted supporters to march on the Capitol during a speech in which he repeated false claims that the election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud.

Four people died the day of the riot, and one Capitol police officer died the next day of injuries sustained while defending Congress. Hundreds of police were injured during the multi-hour melee and four officers have since taken their own lives.

Reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

ShenmeNamaeSollich on December 11st, 2021 at 16:20 UTC »

Fun fact - the FBI identified him in part by the scarf he was wearing, which was from the 2004 “Orange Revolution” protests in Ukraine

Edit: local news link

PDF of FBI's criminal complaint.

That was the same election where Paul Manafort started working to keep Viktor Yanukovych in power after an actually fraudulent election.

So at the very least someone handed this guy a scarf sometime prior to Jan 6 that symbolized the protest against a corrupt election in Ukraine. Where did he get it?

At most, he was there himself in 2004 same time as Paul Manafort, which is an odd coincidence for an American who has no significant connections to Ukraine, but ok.

This dude initially fled to Ukraine, of all places, for some reason. He later had to run to Belarus to avoid Ukrainian authorities. Interesting choice for a guy who claims to love “freedom” or whatever, and considering the Pro-Russian Belarus did NOT like the “orange” side of the Ukraine protests.

Always an awful lot of weird pro-Russia/Ukraine connections with Trump and his supporters. Why is that?

clueless_in_ny_or_nj on December 11st, 2021 at 14:12 UTC »

I want to know where he thinks freedom exists.

walter1950 on December 11st, 2021 at 13:59 UTC »

Interesting choice he made : Belarus is gripped by mass protests, triggered by an election widely believed to have been rigged in favour of the long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko.