U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Mark Sami Ibrahim has been arrested for allegedly participating in the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, CNBC reported on Tuesday.
He allegedly flashed his badge and a handgun issued by the DEA during the riot and posed for pictures with the items.
“He was not on duty for the DEA and had no role as a law enforcement officer on the Capitol grounds,” according to a court filing, which added that he was on personal leave from the DEA when he went to Washington, D.C.
Ibrahim, who is a resident of Orange County, California, was a probationary employee of the DEA and had given notice of his planned resignation a few weeks before the Capitol riot, according to the court filing.
He was arrested and charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a firearm, entering Capitol grounds with a firearm, and climbing on statues on Capitol grounds, the Independent reported.
He was also was charged with making false statements, following an interview in March with the US Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General.
Authorities said he entered the restricted area around the Capitol and also climbed on the Peace Memorial at the foot of Capitol Hill, as well as taking part “in a WhatsApp group chat with at least five other law enforcement officers” during the riot, the court filing said, CNBC reported.
Cell-phone data documents that Ibrahim arrived at the Capitol grounds at 1:06 p.m., 13 minutes after protestors started breaking down fencing protecting the grounds. Three minutes later he “posed for several photographs in which he flashed and displayed his DEA badge and firearm.”
Ibrahim can also be seen at about 1:45 p.m. that day, in a video posted on the Internet, as he was about 400 feet inside the first set of fencing that had barricaded the Capitol, carrying a flagpole with a flag with the words “LIBERTY OR DEATH,” according to the court filing.
More than 500 people have been arrested in connection with the riot, which tried to halt the official certification by Congress of millions of votes for the 2020 presidential election, according to the Independent, which added that there have been more than 20 off-duty law enforcement officers charged in the incident.