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“I was pretty much in the first wave,” said Patrick Stedman, 32, according to the FBI. “[W]e broke down the doors and climbed up the back part of the Capitol building and got all the way into the chambers.”
Agents used the video, social media posts and tips from witnesses – including a high school and college classmate of his – to identify and arrest Stedman, who lives with his parents in Haddonfield.
They also had his dating website, on which Stedman promises that men can “learn what women want” and “become the man they crave."
Stedman urged followers to join him in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, as Congress began trying to certify the results of the November presidential elections, posts included in an FBI complaint on file in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia show.
“Highly recommend all patriots come to DC on the 6th,” he wrote. “This will be a turning point in our nation. Will eventually be a nation holiday akin to the 4th of July. You will want to tell your grandchildren you were there.
“If you are coming [direct message] me. Assembling a TEAM.”
Stedman posted updates along the way, including while taking the train to his destination, before publishing photos and videos from inside the Capitol building as the mob stormed it.
In the video, Stedman “discussed the details of his presence inside the U.S. Capitol, including sitting in Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s office," the FBI complaint says.
“We wanted to go in,” he’s heard saying. “I’m not going to deny that.”
Stedman is charged with unlawful entry into a restricted building and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
He became the third New Jerseyan charged federally in the riot, joining Leonard Guthrie of Cape May County and Thomas Baranyi of Ewing, who showed a TV interviewer blood on his hands that he said belonged to Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by a Capitol police officer during the riot.
SEE: How Easy Was It For FBI To Find NJ Man Who Had Ashli Babbitt’s Blood On His Hands?
Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, a South River native, was killed in the siege when he was hit with a fire extinguisher. An arrest was expected.
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