(Bioreports)The man who was photographed hanging off the Senate balcony and then sitting in the Vice President’s chair during the riots at the US Capitol has been identified and is in custody, according to officials.
In a sworn affidavit, an FBI agent says a relative of Josiah Colt confirmed that Colt is the person seen in a photo sitting in a chair where Vice President Mike Pence had been minutes earlier during the session to count presidential electoral votes. The affidavit included three two photos of the man identified as Colt in the chamber.
Colt was photographed hanging off a balcony and landing on the floor of the Senate chambers, the FBI affidavit said. Colt claimed in a Facebook video that he was the first person to sit in the House Speaker’s chair, according to the affidavit, but the FBI said he “appears to be mistaken as he was also photographed in the seat reserved for the vice president, and not Speaker Pelosi.”
The Ada County Sheriff’s Office in Boise, Idaho confirmed to Bioreports on Tuesday night that Colt was in custody on a hold for the US Marshals Service.
“In the moment I thought I was doing the right thing,” Colt said in a text to Bioreports affiliate KBOI last week. “I realize now that my actions were in appropriate and I beg for forgiveness from America and my home state of Idaho.” Colt and his family have not returned repeated requests for comment from Bioreports.
According to the FBI affidavit, there is probable cause that Colt violated a federal law against entering a restricted building without lawful authority, as well as a law against entering the Capitol to disrupt a session of Congress.
Colt is scheduled to have his first appearance before a judge Wednesday morning via videoconference.
The FBI has opened more than 170 case files in the six days since the attack, and prosecutors have already charged more than 70 cases.
Bioreports’s Sonia Moghe, Ted Barrett, Manu Raju and Peter Nickeas contributed to this report.
