Bill Barr says Trump's election fraud claims 'precipitated' Capitol riot in his first TV interview since resigning as Attorney General

• e-mail

Bill Barr has said that Donald Trump's allegations of election fraud and his claims that the Presidency was 'stolen' from him 'precipitated' the DC riots, in his first TV interview since resigning as Attorney General.

Barr was asked about Trump and his campaign's claims about the legitimacy of the election, and appeared to take a swipe at his former boss.

ITV News Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo asked Barr: 'Perhaps the debate about the integrity of the election was the final straw?'

Barr replied: 'I think that was the thing that precipitated the riots on the Hill'

The jab follows reports that Barr resigned as Attorney General on December 23 after telling President Donald Trump that his widespread voter fraud claims were 'bulls**t' and the legal team he was assembling was 'clownish.'

Before he left office, Barr said publicly that there was no widespread election fraud and in the ITV interview he sought to distance himself from the Capitol rioters -  claiming that he had been worried about violence from Trump supporters. 

He added; 'I'm sad to see, but not surprised in a way to see, the kind of violence we saw on Capitol Hill. I consider it despicable, and - I was not attorney general, I had already left office when that occurred - but I felt that they should move very quickly to disperse that crowd, regardless of which side of the political spectrum is involved.'  

The assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump left five people dead 

Pictured: Supporters of President Donald Trump attend 'Save America' rally where Trump spoke as election results are to be certified in Washington DC on January 6, 2021

He added : 'I think it's always important to remember most people are exercising their First Amendment rights but there is a substantial group obviously that went far beyond that and broke into the Capitol and tried to interfere with the proceedings and that's unacceptable.'

But when asked whether Trump incited the rioters, Barr stopped short, choosing not to name the president explicitly. 

Instead, he said, he would leave it to investigators to determine whether Trump and his allies incited the riot. 

Barr said: 'Regardless of which side of the political spectrum is involved, we just cannot tolerate violence interfering with the processes of government'. 

'I'll leave it to the people who are looking into the genesis of this to say whether incitement was involved.'

Barr - previously a fiercely loyal supporter of the president - left office in December after serving as attorney general under the Trump administration for more than year.

Speaking during the interview, Barr said he would not describe the violence seen by supporters of the president as 'inevitable'.

He added: 'I think that when you start suppressing free speech, when people lose confidence in the media, and also when they lose faith in the integrity of elections - you are going to have some people resort to violence.'

Barr, who also served as attorney general under President George W Bush, said that the 'emergence of violence in the political process' was one of his concerns during his second spell in the office.

'It was just starting - people attacking, people wearing Trump hats, and things like that. You had the Proud Boys who were on the right, fighting the Antifa who were on the left,' Barr told ITV News.

'I said that I was very worried about the emergence of violence and he had to have zero tolerance for it.'

He went on to agree that there were 'similarities' between the rioters and Islamist terrorists, 'because many of the people that get involved in this are people who have problems - psychological problems or problems with their socialisation.

'So to that extent, the raw material of extremism may be similar.'

However, some groups were just 'anarchists against any kind of order,' he said. 'The Islamist threat is far more programmatic. There's probably more structure to it than what we have to deal with here,' he noted. 

His interview with the British TV network comes a day after a report claimed that Barr had repeatedly clashed with Trump about his fraud claims following the election.  

Axious reported that Barr told President Donald Trump in December that his widespread voter fraud claims were 'bulls**t' and the legal team he was assembling was 'clownish.' 

There was not widespread fraud in the election, as has been confirmed by a range of election officials, as well as Barr himself. Nearly all of the legal challenges put forth by Trump and his allies have been dismissed by judges.

Axios reported on the fallout between Trump and Barr, who resigned from his perch at the Justice Department on December 23.  

The relationship began to fray over the summer when Trump wanted to use military force against Black Lives Matter demonstrators in cities like Portland, an inclination Barr pushed back on.

Attorney General Bill Barr told President Donald Trump that his widespread election fraud claims were 'bulls**t' and said Trump's team of lawyers were 'clownish'

Barr, according to Axios, thought Trump's ideas were too aggressive and likened their conversations to the movie 'Groundhog Day,' as the same arguments happened over and over again. 

Trump would throw tantrums when Barr questioned what he would do with troops in major U.S. cities. 

Barr pointed out that the troops could be stranded in Portland and other cities indefinitely. 

'No one supports me,' Trump yelled at one point. 'No one gives me any f***ing support.' 

Axios said that Barr acted like a 'heat shield' between the president and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and Defense Secretary Mark Esper. 

Milley and Esper, like Barr, believed deploying troops to Portland was a bad idea.  

After a summer of fighting, Barr tried to avoid Trump through the fall. 

And the attorney general was largely successful because the president was on the campaign trail so much. 

But after the November 3 election, Trump needed Barr to push his election fraud narrative.  

Barr had asked the DOJ to speed up federal investigations of election fraud allegations, but that wasn't enough for Trump - as the evidence investigators sought didn't exist.        

On November 29, Trump called Barr's DOJ 'missing in action' on Fox News Channel. 

The messaging infuriated Barr, Axios reported. 

In turn, Barr gave an interview to an Associated Press reporter, Michael Balsamo, where he said publicly there was no widespread election fraud. 

Barr knew the story could go live as he was going into a White House meeting on December 1. 

And Trump did confront him over the AP headline: 'Disputing Trump, Barrs says no widespread election fraud.'  

'Why would you say such a thing? You must hate Trump. There's no other reason for it. You must hate Trump,' the president responded, speaking in the third person, Axios reported.  

Barr responded that, 'these things aren't panning out. The stuff that these people are filling your ear with just isn't true,' he said, according to Axios. 

Barr explained that the DOJ had looked into these fraud allegations that Trump's lawyers like Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell were peddling. 

'It's just bulls**t,' Barr said. 

'I'm a pretty informed legal observer and I can't fucking figure out what the theory is here,' Barr continued. 'It's just scattershot. It's all over the hill and gone.'  

Trump responded with a, 'maybe.' 

Barr quit before Christmas because he didn't want his private disagreements coming into public view, Axios said. 

On December 14, Barr met with Trump and argued that it was best for him to step aside. He did so the following week, on December 23.

January 6 saw a violent mob of MAGA supporters storm the Capitol, breaking through police barricades and smashing windows to enter the building.

Send in the troops: Donald Trump repeatedly demanded that Bill Barr allow the military to deploy to Portland as the two men's relationship went into a tailspin

Capitol police officers point their guns at a door that was vandalized in the House Chamber during a joint session of Congress

Richard Barnett, a supporter of US President Donald Trump sits inside the office of US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as he protest inside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, January 6

Lawmakers were forced to go into hiding for several hours as Capitol police grappled to take back control while the mob rioted in the Senate and House, invaded Nancy Pelosi's office and looted items potentially including state secrets. 

One female Trump supporter, US Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, was shot dead by Capitol Police as she tried to climb through a window. 

Three other Trump supporters died after 'medical emergencies' related to the breach and Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick died the following day from injuries sustained in the attack after the thug allegedly hit him over the head with a fire extinguisher. 

Many people have already been arrested and prosecutors across the U.S. have vowed to bring to justice those who stormed the U.S. Capitol, sending lawmakers into hiding as they began their work to affirm President-elect Joe Biden's victory.

The group included white nationalists, neo-Nazis and QAnon conspiracy theorists, coming from states as far-flung as Arizona and Oregon, while photographs from the riot have shown people wearing clothes with a range of antisemitic messages. 

Trump has become the only president to be twice impeached, and the first to be prosecuted as he leaves the White House, an ever-more-extraordinary end to his tenure. 

A precedent set by the Senate in the 1800s established that a trial can proceed even after a federal official leaves office. Trump was first impeached by the House in 2019 over his dealings with Ukraine, but the Senate voted last year to acquit.

Ten Republicans joined all Democrats in the 232-197 impeachment vote on Wednesday, the most bipartisan modern presidential impeachment.

When his second trial does begin, House impeachment managers say they will be making the case that Trump's incendiary rhetoric hours before the attack on the Capitol was not isolated, but directly intended to interrupt the electoral count as part of his escalating campaign to overturn the November election. 

Meanwhile, it was revealed on Tuesday that QAnon fanatics are said to have discussed posing as National Guard soldiers in an attempt to infiltrate President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.  

An intelligence briefing seen by The Washington Post states: 'QAnon members have discussed posing as National Guard soldiers, believing that it would be easy for them to infiltrate secure areas.'

The National Guard have been told to be alert to anyone who looks 'out of place' as a result. 'Concerns of lone wolf actors are increasing,' the report adds.  

Videos and pictures taken of the security measures by unknown individuals in DC have already been shared online and while there are said to be no specific threats maps of the city have also been studied by extremists, according to the paper.

The threats against Biden´s inauguration have been fueled by supporters of President Donald Trump, far-right militants, white supremacists and other radical groups. 

Many believe Trump´s baseless accusations that the election was stolen from him, a claim that has been refuted by many courts, the Justice Department and Republican officials in key battleground states. 

Security concerns have gripped Washington following the deadly January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump rioters. 

The FBI has not commented on the latest report. 

More than 125 people have been arrested so far on charges related to the violent insurrection led by Trump supporters at the Capitol, where a Capitol police officer and four others were killed. 

Charges from the January 6 riot range from curfew violations to serious federal felonies related to theft and weapons possession. 

Joe Biden will arrive in Washington today and try to take the focus off Donald Trump with ceremony of remembrance for the 400,000 victims of COVID at the Lincoln Memorial

• President-elect Joe Biden will arrive in Washington D.C. on Tuesday after speaking at a send-off in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware
• Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris will host a ceremony at the Lincoln Tuesday night honoring the nearly 400,000 American lives lost to coroanvirus
• The incoming president will also attend church Wednesday morning before inauguration in the absence of  the traditional White House reception 
• The events are meant to distract from President Donald Trump's exit from Washington as Congress steams ahead with impeachment proceedings 
• Trump will fly to Mar-a-Lago Wednesday as he exits the White House 
•  And after being sworn in he and former presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama will lay a wreath at Arlington's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
• A prayer service at National Cathedral on Thursday is expected to center on the victims of COVID

Joe Biden will try to divert attention from President Donald Trump’s White House exit as the president-elect arrives in Washington D.C. Tuesday for a memorial honoring the American lives lost to coronavirus the night before his inauguration.

The former vice president will participate in a send-off event in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware before he and his wife Jill Biden depart for the nation’s capital.

Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris will host a ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Tuesday evening to honor the nearly 400,000 American lives lost to the pandemic.

Tuesday’s events are an attempt to deflect from a potentially messy exit from the White House, as Trump will not participate in the usual pomp and circumstance of exchange of power – such as holding a private conversation with the incoming president, leaving a letter of advice or attending his replacement's inauguration.

He also could face a split-screen moment Wednesday as the House prepares to deliver the article of impeachment against Trump to the Senate – and several Democratic senators are eager to move forward with the proceedings. 

Biden’s team is already trying to set a more serious and sympathetic tone in its response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The attempt to turn the focus from Trump to COVID will begin on Tuesday night.

Biden and Harris will lead a 'moment of unity and remembrance' for the dead at 5:30 p.m. at the Lincoln Memorial. The reflecting pool in front of the memorial will be lit up for the first time, to honor the deceased.

President-elect Joe Biden will arrive in Washington D.C. on Tuesday after speaking at a send-off in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware

Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in Washington will host a memorial to the American lives lost to COVID-19 

The two will make remarks from the Lincoln Memorial honoring the nearly 400,000 dead as the reflecting pool in front of the memorial will be illuminated

Inauguration will take place as thousands of National Guard troops patrol D.C. after the storming of the Capitol building earlier this month led to a slew of threats against lawmakers and the incoming administration

Unprecedented: Biden's inauguration takes place with D.C. in lockdown and 25,000 National Guard troops deployed in the wake of the MAGA riot

The president-elect is asking Americans to light a candle in their window in honor of those who lost their lives to the deadly pandemic.

It is unclear if members of the Trump administration will attend the memorial.

On Wednesday, Biden will be sworn into office – and with the lack of any traditional greetings by the outgoing president, Biden will use his time before the inauguration ceremony to go to church.

Then on Thursday, he will attend a prayer service at Washington National Cathedral, which is expected to be dedicated to those who have died of COVID.

As of Tuesday morning, 399,003 Americans have lost their lives to the virus and more than 24 million have been infected since early last year.

With the traditions of inauguration upended by a combination of Trump's refusal to meet Biden at the White House, massive security in the wake of the MAGA riots, and Biden's insistence that the event be COVID safe, his team have carved out a new version which they hope will help take the focus off the outgoing president.

That will be a difficult task: Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate could begin as early as 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, minutes after Biden is sworn in on the steps of the Capitol and exactly two weeks after the MAGA mob stormed it. 

Preparations: Biden will be sworn-in Wednesday afternoon on the steps of the Capitol in an unusual private ceremony in light of the pandemic and emerging threats. The inauguration will be void of any of the traditional symbols of the transfer of power from one president to the next

Nearly 200,000 miniature American flags, dubbed the 'filed of flags', were placed on the National Mall in lieu of a live audience for the inauguration

President Donald Trump will not participate in any of the usual traditions of transfer of power, like meeting with Biden the morning of inauguration on Wednesday or attending his swearing in

Nearly 200,000 mini American flags were placed on the National Mall this week to take the place of a live audience for the inauguration.

With the mix of coronavirus and threats facing the incoming president and his administration, the ceremony was closed to the public and will instead consist of a small, invite-only socially-distanced audience. 

Wednesday morning, Trump is set to leave the White House for Mar-a-Lago on board Air Force One. His demands for a military sendoff at Joint Base Andrews were nixed by the Pentagon.

Until now it had been traditional for the outgoing president and first lady to welcome the president-elect and his wife to the White House on the morning of inauguration, with the two leaders then going down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol in the presidential limousine. 

That was what happened in 2017, with the Trumps first going to a prayer service at St John's Episcopal Church on Lafayette Square opposite the White House - later to become notorious as the site of his Bible photo-op in June 2020 - before being welcomed to the White House by the Obamas.

But the Bidens will not be welcomed at the White House and instead, the president-elect will go to Mass. 

It is unclear which church he will attend on Tuesday. Only one Catholic church, St Patrick's close to Metro Center in downtown D.C. will be inside the massive security zone being thrown around the White House, National Mall and Capitol.

After being sworn in, Biden will once again turn to remembering the dead, this time fallen troops, by driving to Arlington National Cemetery with former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Jimmy Carter, 96 and his wife Rosalynn, who have spent the pandemic largely at their home in Plains, GA, will not attend.

The ceremony at Arlington may provide a jarring split screen moment if the Senate trial of Trump begins at 1pm.

It will also serve to underline the support for the peaceful transfer of power from the former presidents who include Bush the sole living Republican former president.  

And with the round of balls and concerts abandoned, Wednesday night will instead see a TV show hosted by Tom Hanks at 8.30pm on NBC, ABC, CBS and PBS as well as CNN and MSNBC.

The day after inauguration has traditionally featured a prayer service at National Cathedral but this time is likely to focus on praying for a nation traumatized by COVID and the Capitol riot.

Biden's non-traditional inauguration will be the start of a first day in office in which he will take an axe to many of Trump's signature policies. 

Among the promises Biden has made include mask mandates, striking down the travel ban on predominantly Muslim countries, and having the United States rejoin the Paris Climate Accord.

While it's an ambitious plan, Biden plans on signing a handful of executive orders on his first day in office, per a memo from incoming chief of staff Ron Klain.

One of the executive orders Biden will sign is a reversal of the travel ban, which first affected people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen when it was implemented in January 2017.

The order has been altered slightly since then, but has largely withstood legal challenges. 

Another executive order Biden is planning on signing on his first day is an order that will have the United States rejoin the Paris Climate Accord.  

The agreement signed in 2016 is a global pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emission and enact other environmentally-conscious policies.

Trump had the United States withdraw from the agreement in November 2019, becoming the most significant nation to no longer be party to the pact, drawing the ire of the rest of the globe.

'During the campaign, President-elect Biden pledged to take immediate action to start addressing these crises and build back better,' Klain wrote in a memo obtained by CNN.

'As president, he will keep those promises and sign dozens of executive orders, presidential memoranda, and directives to Cabinet agencies in fulfillment of the promises he made.'   

Tradition: This was the scene in 2017 when the Obamas welcomed the Trumps to the White House before the inauguration of the 45th president. Instead the Bidens will first go to the White House after he is sworn in

Traditional solemnity: Presidents usually go to Arlington National Cemetery on the day of their inaugurations with the vice president - as Obama did with Biden in 2013 - but this time Biden will be joined by the former presidents coming to the inauguration, Bush, Clinton and Obama

Show business: Lady Gaga will sing the National Anthem at the inauguration and Tom Hanks will host a primetime TV special taking the place of balls and parties

Other executive orders Biden wants to sign right away include a halt of evictions during the pandemic, a pause on student loan payments during the pandemic, and a mandate requiring the wearing of face masks on federal properties and in federally-controlled jurisdictions, which includes interstate planes, trains and buses.

Biden also has listed a thorough immigration policy and a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill among his top priorities.

Biden previously said he would roll back the Migrant Protection Protocols on his first day, which turn away many Central American refugees at the Mexican border.

Whether or not he does so could become critical in the coming days, with reports of Honduran migrants working their way through Guatemala and slowly towards the US border emerging. 

In addition to his many executive orders and policy priorities, Biden also has his eye on his first overseas trip as president.

The Sunday Telegraph reports that Biden is planning on making the United Kingdom the site of his first trip outside of North America, which would be considered a boost to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.  

'Joe's view will be that they'll have the destiny of the world on their shoulders so he'll want to overcome any political differences,' a friend of Biden's said to the Telegraph, in regards to Biden's previous opposition to Brexit.

According to his chief of staff, Biden has plans to sign up to about a dozen executive orders

A United Nations climate change conference is scheduled to take place in Glasgow, Scotland in the fall of 2021, meaning Biden could end up visiting the United Kingdom more than once this year.  

Trump and Johnson tapped into similar sentiments within their countries, but the relationship between the two nations during their tenures has not been rock solid.

Because of Brexit, the two nations are working on a new trade deal, which isn't expected to be in place before 2022.

Trump's first foreign visit as the president took him to several countries in May 2017 starting in Saudi Arabia, where he signed a $110 billion arms deal.  

Capitol rioters: Who is among those arrested so far? 

Dozens of people have already been arrested and prosecutors across the U.S. have vowed to bring to justice those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, sending lawmakers into hiding as they began their work to affirm President-elect Joe Biden's victory.

The group included white nationalists, neo-Nazis and QAnon conspiracy theorists, coming from states as far-flung as Arizona and Oregon, while photographs from the riot have shown people wearing clothes with a range of antisemitic messages and imagery. 

The former wife of retired Lt. Col Larry Rendall Brock Jr., 53, called the FBI's National Threat Operations Center to report that she'd recognized her ex, who was pictured carrying plastic handcuffs and wearing full military gear.

Brock has since been arrested slapped with federal charges, as was an Nashville bartender, 30, who attended Capitol riot with his mom and was also pictured carrying zip-ties and wearing full paramilitary gear. 

Eric Munchel, a Nashville bartender, 30, has been named as the man pictured in the Senate press gallery with a bundle of flex-cuffs, heavy duty restraints used by law enforcement in mass arrests on Jan 6. He attended the riot with his mother.

News of the pair's arrests came on January 10 as Ryan McCarthy, Army Secretary, said that at least 25 domestic terrorist cases have been opened up following the January 6 assault on the Capitol. 

Both men are charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Larry Rendall Brock Jr., 53, (at the riots) was among the violent mob of Donald Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol January 6 in a riot that left five including one police officer dead 

Eric Munchel has been named as the man pictured with a bundle of flex-cuffs

Further arrests have also been made. 

One Trump supporter, who allegedly told his friends that he wanted to shoot and run over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has been arrested on federal charges stemming from the riot at the Capitol last week as authorities arrest an Alabama man with possessing 11 Molotov cocktails near the building.  

The Miami Herald reported that the man photographed standing at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's lectern was named Adam Johnson from Parrish Florida. The 36-year-old father of five posted on Facebook that he was in Washington, and was later arrested on a Federal warrant.

Another man, widely photographed wearing face paint, a horned, fur hat and extensive tattoos in the Senate chamber and the Capitol's corridors, was charged with counts including violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

He has been named as self-styled 'QAnnon shaman' Jacob Anthony Chansley of Arizona, more commonly known as Jake Angeli. 

A 41-year-old Iowa man named Doug Jensen, who was seen in videos chasing a black police officer up a flight of stairs, was jailed early January 10 on federal charges including trespassing and disorderly conduct.

Richard Barnett (pictured), of Arkansas, who was photographed sitting at a desk in Pelosi's office was also arrested

Richard Barnett, the Arkansas man shown in a widely seen photo sitting in Pelosi's office with his boots on the desk. He is charged with crimes including theft of public money, property or records

Jacob Anthony Chansley, the heavily-tattooed Trump supporter who sported horns, a fur hat and face paint as he occupied the Senate dais, was also arrested

Defendants facing federal charges include Richard Barnett, the Arkansas man shown in a widely seen photo sitting in Pelosi's office with his boots on the desk. Barnett is charged with crimes including theft of public money, property or records.

Another man being tried in federal court, Lonnie Coffman of Falkville, Alabama, was arrested after authorities say they found guns and 11 Molotov cocktail explosive devices made out of Mason jars, golf tees and cloth rags in his pickup truck. 

West Virginia lawmaker Derrick Evans - who posted videos showing himself pushing hi way into the Capitol building - was arrested by the FBI and charged with entering restricted federal property.

Nich Och of the far-right Proud Boys group who was photographed smoking a cigarette in the halls of Congress

Evans resigned from his position in a letter to West Virginia governor Jim Justice, apologising for his involvement. In his own livestream, he was seen joining Trump supporters rushing into the building, shouting 'Our house!' 

Nick Ochs, who described himself as a 'Proud Boy Elder from Hawaii', was arrested at an airport in Honolulu by the FBI as he returned from DC.

The Proud Boys is an anti-immigrant and all male far-right group founded in 2016, that have been present at number of pro-Trump events.

He's accused of unlawful entry of restricted buildings or grounds. It comes after he posted a picture smoking a cigarette inside the Capitol and tweeted: 'Hello from the Capital lol'.

Rendall Brock, a father-of-three who now lives in Dallas, was pictured on the Senate floor after the group had broken through barricades, pushed back law enforcement and sent lawmakers fleeing for safety.    

Images show him wearing a combat helmet, body armor and a vinyl tag with the Punisher skull on - a symbol adopted by white supremacists and believers of conspiracy theory QAnon.

Johnson, who was pictured inside the Capitol making off with a lectern, appears to have removed his social media platforms in the aftermath of the siege

He carried zip-tie handcuffs and appeared to be speaking with fellow rioters, several of which were dressed in MAGA caps.  

Brock, who was in the Air Force for more than two decades and now works for an aviation company, was also seen in footage, shot by ITV News, appearing to exit Nancy Pelosi's office - which was vandalized and looted in the chaos. 

'It is alleged that Brock was identified as one of the individuals who unlawfully entered the US Capitol,' a DoJ statement said.

Eric Munchel, 30, is pictured in his mugshot having been arrested

It added he had been 'wearing a green helmet, green tactical vest with patches, black and camo jacket, and beige pants holding a white flex cuff, which is used by law enforcement to restrain and/or detain subjects'.        

Bartender Munchel told The Times of London: 'We wanted to show that we're willing to rise up, band together and fight if necessary. Same as our forefathers, who established this country in 1776. It was a kind of flexing of muscles.'

His mother, Lisa Eisenhart, 57, said: 'The left has everything: the media, organizations, the government. We have to organize if we're going to fight back and be heard.'

The nurse, who wore a bullet proof vest like her son, added: 'This country was founded on revolution. If they're going to take every legitimate means from us, and we can't even express ourselves on the internet, we won't even be able to speak freely, what is America for?

'I'd rather die as a 57-year-old woman than live under oppression. I'd rather die and would rather fight.' 

The pair are said to have driven from Nashville, Tennessee for the protest.    

Brock has already admitted he invaded the Senate floor and roamed Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office dressed in combat gear and carrying zip-tie cuffs. 

But he told The New Yorker he thought he was welcome to enter the U.S. Capitol and claimed he 'found' the zip ties on the floor and merely picked them up so he could hand them in to a police officer. 

The FBI is said to be investigating whether any of Trump's supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol were conspiring to hurt lawmakers or take them hostage. 

'We're not looking at this as a grand conspiracy, but we are interested in learning what people would do with things like zip ties,' a law enforcement official told The Washington Post.

The FBI has asked for help in tracking down those responsible for 'rioting and violence' in the Capitol, with some of the mob already identified online. 

The top federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia has said 'all options are on the table' for charging the rioters, many of whom were egged on by President Donald Trump's speech hours earlier at a rally over his election loss. 

Trump addressed his thousands of his supporters near the White House at his 'Save America' rally ahead of the riots, and declared war on his own party, calling Republicans who opposed him 'weak'

Investigators are combing through photos, videos and tips from the public to track down members of the violent mob. 

The cases in Superior Court mainly have to do with things like curfew violations and gun crimes. 

Those being tried in federal court, where prosecutors can generally secure longer sentences, are charged with things like violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, assaulting a federal law enforcement officer and threatening House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Prosecutors say these charges are just the beginning. Authorities said that said additional cases remained under seal and dozens of other people were being sought by federal agents.

US attorneys in several states, including Kentucky, Ohio and Oregon, said people could face charges in their home states if they traveled to Washington and took part in the riot. 

Investigators will also consider whether there was any concerted plot targeting Vice President Mike Pence, who enraged Trump and his loyalists by refusing to illegally intervene in Congress to overthrow the election.