Bragging He Smoked Weed In Capitol Riot Traps New York Man: Feds

BUFFALO, NY — Sitting in his dentist’s chair for a routine appointment about a week after the failed Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Daniel Warmus of Alden, New York, spilled his guts.

Warmus bragged not only about breaching the Capitol and refusing a Capitol Police officer’s order to leave but also that he smoked a joint inside the landmark building, the FBI said.

Another patient heard it all, including the audio of a video Warmus played, and alerted the FBI, an unnamed FBI special agent from the agency’s field office in Buffalo said in an affidavit.

The 37-year-old western New York man, who was arrested Tuesday in Buffalo, is among some 440 people facing charges in the sweeping FBI investigation into the deadly Capitol riot. Investigators are increasingly relying on tips from family members, friends, co-workers and others who have seen social media images or heard the boastful claims of alleged rioters.

Warmus is charged with two counts of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority, and knowingly and with intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of government business.

Several images showing Warmus inside the Capitol are included in the affidavit supporting the charges. Some show Warmus inside restricted areas of the Capitol and, in one of them, a man the FBI believes is Warmus is pictured placing a black object he picked up off the floor on a statue.

Warmus is not the only person accused in the riot who authorities said smoked marijuana inside the Capitol. Eduardo Nicolas Alvear Gonzalez, 32, of Ventura, California, dubbed “The Capitol Rotunda Doobie Smoker” in a YouTube video, listed “freedom” as part of the reason he smoked weed in the Capitol, according to the FBI.

Announcement of the charges against Warmus came as Senate Republicans try to block, or at least slow down, an independent 9/11-style commission from looking deeply into the Capitol siege that left five people dead and how to prevent it from happening again, The Associated Press reported.

The bill to create the commission is expected to pass the House this week, despite the vocal objections of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he is “pushing the pause button” on the legislation in the Senate, where at least 10 Republicans would have to join Democrats in voting for the commission.

McConnell told reporters Tuesday his hesitancy to move the vote forward stems from concern the commission’s work would interfere with the criminal cases of those accused in the riot and questions over whether the “fine print” of the bill ensures both parties an equal say.

The two Republican leaders’ hesitancy gives cover to Republicans reluctant to upset former President Donald Trump, whose supporters stormed the Capitol to stop Congress from counting electoral votes that gave now-President Joe Biden a decisive win over Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Trump and many of his supporters continue to mount false claims the election was stolen, and Trump on Tuesday urged Republicans not to fall into what he called “a Democrat trap.”

Some Republicans have begun to downplay the severity of riot, and many say the panel should also look into violence at protests last year after the death of George Floyd and other Black Americans killed in police encounters.

The commission also could subpoena McCarthy and question him about a conversation he had with Trump as the Capitol was breached, and Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who was recently booted from her leadership position for criticizing Trump’s false claims about election integrity.