The FBI arrested Americus attorney McCall Calhoun Friday after he was identified by his own social media posts as among the pro-Trump rioters who breached the Capitol, according to documents filed in a Washington, D.C., federal court.
“We physically took control of the Capitol Building in a hand to hand hostile takeover,” Calhoun posted to Facebook on Jan. 6, according to an FBI affidavit. “I was there and saw it all. My buddy Andy Nalley and I were in the first two hundred to rush up the steps and inside after the Vanguard had clashed hard with the police and made them retreat.”
Another Facebook post described how Calhoun was among the crowd who broke into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, describing the scene as a “mob howling with rage” and saying Pelosi “probably would have been torn into little pieces, but she was nowhere to be seen.”
Authorities snared Michael Shane Daughtry of Baker County after the Pelham Police Department in southwest Georgia checked Daughtry’s Facebook profile and found “posts indicating that he participated in the breach,” according to the affidavit of his arrest.
Daughtry was among the crowd that pushed its way onto the Capitol grounds and onto the scaffolding erected for Wednesday’s inauguration, according to the affidavit.
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“We the one that tore the fence down up there,” he allegedly told a Pelham police officer in a recorded conversation with police. “Everybody followed us.”
Daughtry allegedly said he went to the Capitol doors before he was struck by rubber bullets and backed off.
Records show Daughtry is a federally licensed firearms dealer and the affidavit states he ran his business, “Crazy Coon’s Armory,” out of his home. He is charged with entering a restricted space, a misdemeanor with a penalty of up to a year in prison. The charge also carries a penalty of up to 10 years if the person convicted was armed or if it resulted in “significant bodily injury.”
According to the FBI, Daughtry was charged and released. Daughtry declined to comment Tuesday.
At least one Georgia paramilitary group announced plans to be in Washington for Wednesday’s inauguration.
“We want to make sure we are (there) if anything does happen we are able to assist to our fullest potential,” Justin “Slayer” Thayer, head of the Georgia III% Martyrs said in an email conversation with the AJC Tuesday.
The Martyrs showed up as an unofficial security detail for congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene and Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler last year. Thayer said he and his group also attended the Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally in Washington, although he said he did not march on the Capitol and said he advised others to avoid violence.
Thayer suggested Trump might remain in office and that “corrupt politicians” would be arrested Wednesday.
“If something does happen we will be in the middle of the action aiding the constitutionalist and it will be everything we have trained for,” he said.
