A U.S. Capitol Police officer has been charged with obstruction of justice after prosecutors alleged he told a rioter to erase proof of their involvement in the January 6 insurrection.
The officer, Michael A. Riley, is accused of telling someone who allegedly participated in the riot to remove posts from Facebook that showed the person inside the Capitol building during the riots on January 6, according to court documents.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
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Riley is due to appear in federal court in Washington later Friday.
Riley, who responded to a report of a pipe bomb on January 6 and has been a Capitol Police officer for about 25 years, had sent the person a message telling them that he was an officer with the police force who “agrees with your political stance,” an indictment against him said.
The indictment spelled out how Riley sent dozens of messages to the unidentified person, encouraging them to remove incriminating photos and videos and telling them how the FBI was investigating to identify rioters.
It wasn’t clear if Riley had an attorney who could comment on the charges against him. A call to the U.S. Capitol Police wasn’t immediately returned.
In the days after the attack, scores of rioters flaunted their participation in social media posts that bragged about their ability to get inside the Capitol. But then many started realizing it could be used as evidence and began deleting it.
An Associated Press review of court records has found that at least 49 defendants are accused of trying to erase incriminating photos, videos and texts from phones or social media accounts documenting their conduct as the pro-Donald Trump mob stormed Congress and briefly interrupted the certification of Democrat Joe Biden‘s election victory.
Experts say the efforts to scrub the social media accounts reveal a desperate willingness to manipulate evidence once these people realized they were in hot water. They say it can serve as powerful proof of people’s consciousness of guilt and can make it harder to negotiate plea deals and seek leniency at sentencing.
But making digital content vanish isn’t as easy as deleting content from phones, removing social media posts or shutting down accounts. Investigators have been able to retrieve the digital content by requesting it from social media companies, even after accounts are shut down. Posts made on Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms are recoverable for a certain period of time, and authorities routinely ask those companies to preserve the records until they get court orders to view the posts.
Jose Luis Magana, File/AP Photo
