A man who allegedly stormed the Capitol requested to go to Jamaica. A judge nixed the trip
A judge denied a request from a Michigan man accused of storming the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection to travel to Jamaica to visit his girlfriend’s family.
Anthony Williams through his attorney this week requested to travel to Jamaica for 10 days to “visit his girlfriend’s family who resides in that country.” The request was filed Thursday, which marked one year since a mob breached the Capitol in an effort to derail Congress’s certification of the 2020 presidential election.
The man explained in the document that he would stay in a home owned by his girlfriend’s father and work with a local charity organization while in the country.
But the request was quickly shot down by Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell.
Missouri: Woman linked to Jan. 6 Capitol riots arrested after fatal wrong-way car crash
January 6 Capitol insurrection: Solemn events mark deadly attack one year later
“This Court will not commemorate the one-year anniversary of this attack on the Capitol by granting defendant's request for non-essential foreign travel when he is awaiting judgment for his actions on that day,” Howell wrote hours after Williams’ request.
Williams is indicted on five charges in connection to the riot and has pleaded not guilty.
The Michigan man is on pretrial release and can’t travel outside of the country without approval from a federal judge.
According to a document from the FBI, Williams said in a video obtained by officials that he and others “took this (expletive) building." Before the riot, he allegedly said in a Facebook comment "We gonna Storm the Swamp" and later called Jan. 6 the “proudest day of my life.”
Howell referenced those alleged comments in her response this week, saying, “Although such a meeting may be an important step in defendant's personal relationship … (Williams) surrendered his entitlement to unfettered international travel” after "he allegedly announced his intent to ‘Storm the Swamp’” and joined "a mob at the Capitol that, in his words, 'took [that] (expletive) building.'"
Federal prosecutors have charged more than 700 people in over 45 states with participating in the insurrection.
President Joe Biden in a speech on Thursday at the Capitol said former President Donald Trump and the mob that breached the building "held a dagger at the throat of America."