We wonder if they found the podium
A man pictured carrying a lectern through the United States Capitol building during Wednesday’s riot has been arrested.
The arrest of Adam Johnson, aged 36, from Parrish, Manatee County, was logged by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office on Friday night—two days after the disorder broke out.
The man, who was seen gleefully stealing what looks to be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s podium in a now infamous photo from Wednesday’s Capitol riot, was identified by the Bradenton Herald and other national news outlets and subsequently arrested.
According to the Florida’s WFLA News Channel 8, Johnson is married to a local physician and has five children.
Johnson was also the subject of an internet meme after a reporter tweeted the image with the caption, “Via Getty, one of the rioters steals a podium from the Capitol.” Some of the initial comments from Twitter users believed his name to actually be “Via Getty”.
Insurrectionists crashed through barriers surrounding Capitol Hill on Wednesday, overwhelming police and rampaging through the Capitol building. Dozens of people were injured and five people were killed, but there were relatively few arrests and many of those who entered the building were simply allowed to walk out.
However, law enforcement agencies have been working to identify those who took part in the riot in the time since, and it doesn’t take a lot of investigative work to identify many of them as a huge number posed for photos and uploaded them to their own social media pages.
A man who made his way into the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and posed for a picture with his feet up on her desk is also among those arrested since Wednesday.
From his feet on Nancy Pelosi's desk to an Arkansas jail. Here's a mug shot of Richard Barnett, who was arrested this morning and is now facing federal charges pic.twitter.com/rpSJ3BvyAm
— Reena Roy (@reenaroy) January 8, 2021
Richard Barnett, who was pictured sitting at Pelosi’s desk, was arrested in Little Rock, Arkansas and is facing multiple federal charges for his role in a violent attack on the Capitol, including entering restricted grounds, violent entry, and theft of public property.
