Man who stormed U.S. Capitol charged with threatening to assassinate Rep. Ocasio-Cortez

A Dallas-area man who joined a violent mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol earlier this month has been charged with making a dying risk in a social media publish in opposition to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Garret Miller, 34, of Richardson, Texas was arrested earlier this week on a number of fees associated to the Capitol riot, according to a federal complaint.

Miller’s legal professional, Clinton Broden, instructed CNBC that the fees in opposition to his shopper have been upgraded to incorporate a risk cost on Tuesday, a day earlier than he was arrested in Richardson. The upgraded cost got here comparatively quickly after the preliminary grievance was filed in Washington, D.C. federal court docket, Broden stated.

The opposite fees embody coming into or remaining in any restricted buildings or grounds with out lawful authority; violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds; obstructing or impeding any official continuing and sure acts throughout civil dysfunction.

The risk cost in opposition to Miller is predicated on the declare by prosecutors that he threatened Rep. Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., throughout state traces on social media. It carries a most attainable sentence of 5 years in jail.

Miller wrote “Assassinate AOC” in a Twitter publish, in response to the grievance. Miller additionally allegedly posted about coming into the Capitol constructing on his Instagram account and admitted that he “had a rope in [his] bag on that day.”

Miller additionally threatened a Capitol Police officer who shot useless a lady making an attempt to breach the Capitol constructing in the course of the riot. “We going to come up with [the USCP officer] and hug his neck with a pleasant rope[.],” Miller stated, in response to the grievance.

“Mr. Miller regrets the actions he took in a misguided effort to point out his assist for former President Trump,” Broden stated. “He has the total assist of his household and has all the time been a law-abiding citizen.”

“His social media feedback mirror very ill-considered political hyperbole in very divided instances and will definitely not be repeated sooner or later,” Broden continued. “He seems to be ahead to placing all of this behind him.”

Broden added that he does not imagine there’s proof that Miller deliberate to hold out the threats.

Miller is because of seem Monday for a detention listening to in Dallas federal court docket. Prosecutors have stated they need him detained pending trial, however Broden stated he’ll argue for Miller’s conditional launch pending trial in Washington.

Ocasio-Cortez responded to the grievance detailing Miller allegedly bragging on-line about his position within the riot, writing in a tweet: “On one hand it’s important to giggle, and on the opposite know that the rationale they have been this brazen is as a result of they thought they have been going to succeed.”

Ocasio-Cortez has beforehand stated she feared for her life during the riot and members of Congress have been “practically assassinated.”

“I didn’t know if I used to be going to make it to the top of that day alive, and never simply in a basic sense but in addition in a really, very particular sense,” the Democratic consultant stated in an Instagram Dwell video on Jan. 12, with out elaborating the small print.