WASHINGTON — As the Jan. 6 committee prepares for a prime-time public listening to subsequent week, the Justice Department is barely a fraction of the means by way of considered one of the largest investigations in American historical past. The FBI has made about 850 arrests, and there are hundreds left to go.
One individual carefully watching the news of Jan. 6 arrests is a right-wing comic just lately recognized to the FBI by the on-line sleuths who have performed a essential function in figuring out folks in hundreds of Capitol assault circumstances. The FBI doesn’t remark on ongoing investigations, and an official declined to take action in this case.
Kevin Downey Jr. was considered one of the highest-profile contributors to have entered the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6; he appeared on “America’s Got Talent” on NBC in 2013 and was considered one of the males remodeled by the authentic Fab Five on Bravo’s “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” in 2004. He additionally launched a minimum of one DVD particular, “I’m Not Gay, but Don’t Stop,” in 2008. More just lately, Downey has taken a flip as a pro-Trump commentator, writing for the right-wing web site PJ Media and describing himself on Twitter as Kevin “Ultra MAGA” Downey Jr.
Downey is a public determine who has written extensively about the aftermath of the Jan. 6 assault. Three on-line sleuths confirmed to NBC News that Downey’s identify has been submitted to the FBI, and the on-line community generally known as “Sedition Hunters,” which has printed photos of Jan. 6 contributors, lists a photograph of Downey as “identified.”
“Hopefully it will be the FBI, and not Downey, who gets the last laugh,” one on-line sleuth informed NBC News.
Online sleuths say they recognized Downey with the assist of surveillance footage launched in reference to one other Jan. 6 case. After getting a facial recognition hit, confirming his identification was comparatively straightforward, they mentioned: Downey was touring with a companion (his fiancee, in line with his social media posts), and he additionally despatched tweets each earlier than and after the Jan. 6 assault, together with one which informed a Fox News persona to direct-message Downey if he wished to “speak to someone that got inside the Capitol.”
NBC News additionally discovered images that Downey posted of himself and his fiancee on Facebook on Jan. 6 that match the outfit the particular person recognized by the sleuths is seen sporting in the authorities surveillance footage inside the Capitol. That surveillance footage was launched in reference to the trial of Dustin Thompson, a convicted Jan. 6 defendant who argued that Trump “authorized” the assault on the U.S. Capitol and that he was “following presidential orders.”
NBC News additionally discovered a YouTube interview by which Downey and his fiancee talked about their experiences at the Capitol, though they didn’t explicitly state that they entered the constructing.
Reached for remark Friday night by NBC News, and knowledgeable that NBC News could be publishing this story, Downey hung up the telephone.
“Oh,” he mentioned, earlier than hanging up. He didn’t reply to extra texts and voicemails looking for remark, nor did PJ Media.
Downey left an in depth on-line path about his actions on Jan. 6, 2021. On Jan. 5, he replied to a Trump tweet, writing he was on his method to Trump’s rally.
“If you would like to speak to someone that got inside the Capitol please DM me,” he tweeted at Sean Hannity on Jan. 6.
(His companion, who can also be a comic, wrote that she “marched to the Capitol peacefully,” and that Trump didn’t incite violence, and despatched one other tweet saying she had “inside info regarding yesterday’s Capitol breech.”)
Downey, in a YouTube interview posted weeks after the revolt, mentioned that, whereas he beloved Trump, his Jan. 6 speech was “a little boring.” In the interview, Downey described going to the Capitol and listening to tear fuel canisters go off and recalled “some knuckleheads” climbing the partitions of the constructing.
He additionally described when the mob rushed the constructing and that he noticed folks rising from the Capitol coated in pepper spray.
“That’s when everyone pushed up, and people were pouring in the doors. They were going in, and they were coming out covered in tear gas or pepper spray,” he mentioned. “There was a line in, and a line out.”
Downey mentioned he “saw a mother-daughter go in” and “take a selfie.” Although he didn’t say that he went into the Capitol himself, the YouTube video could possibly be fruitful for prosecutors looking for as an instance that Downey knew he didn’t have permission to enter the Capitol constructing.
His fiancee, who joined him for a part of the interview, defended her actions on Jan. 6.
“I knew exactly what I was doing when I waved that flag and walked all the way to the Capitol,” his fiancee mentioned. “I was fighting for our country.”
She didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Since the revolt, in between appearances at comedy golf equipment, Downey has been writing for PJ Media about Jan. 6 and what he sees as FBI overreach.
“Today’s FBI has enough time to sniff out every Capitol-related lead; chase every mother-daughter team that spent four minutes in the Capitol; and go after every granny, dozens of Long Island patriots, every off-duty police officer, and every other American who took a selfie in the Capitol,” Downey wrote.
He celebrated a decide’s acquittal of Matthew Martin, a protection contractor who admitted he entered the Capitol constructing by way of a door with a smashed-out window as alarms blared.
The complete variety of people who entered the Capitol tops 2,500, and the FBI continues to be looking for the identities of 350 people it says dedicated violent acts, per its web site. The sprawling investigation has overwhelmed the Justice Department, which has requested Congress for extra assets to go after folks concerned in Jan. 6. Online sleuths say they’ve recognized hundreds extra people who haven’t confronted prices.
Among them is John Emanuel Banuelos, whom they recognized to the FBI in February 2021. Months later, when he was arrested by native police for fatally stabbing a 19-year-old, Banuelos admitted to police that he had flashed a gun exterior the Capitol on Jan. 6, although he didn’t enter the constructing. Prosecutors dropped the stabbing prices towards Banuelos after he claimed self-defense; he has not been charged in reference to Jan. 6.
As for Downey, he seems to be sticking with conspiracy theories that encompass Jan. 6. Recently, he’s been retweeting conspiracy theories about Ray Epps, who was on the grounds of the Capitol and is seen on video making an attempt to separate extra aggressive rioters from the police line however who by no means went inside and has not been charged. Unlike Jan. 6 defendant Stephen Ayres, who testified earlier than the Jan. 6 committee, Downey doesn’t appear to have had a change of heart about the election.
“When election fraud is proven, will the Capitol ‘rioters’ be pardoned?” he asked final yr.