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Dutchess County resident William Vogel, of Pawling, was apprehended for his role in the Wednesday, Jan. 6 riot after being connected through images and video posted on Snapchat and conversations on Facebook that were later flagged by FBI investigators, authorities said.
According to an FBI joint terrorism task force officer, videos with the Snapchat usernames “will vogel” and “willvogelmusic” and an emoji that is consistent with Vogel’s actual appearance showed officers inside the Capitol building retreating from rioters while chanting “whose house? Our house!”
A tipster who has known Vogel for years confirmed that the video belonged to Vogel, claiming to be “100 percent sure.” A second informant confirmed that the videos belong to Vogel and said that the Snapchat account was definitely his.
The videos were confirmed by several other tipsters, one of whom said that Vogel was “very vocal” about being at the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C.
FBI investigators later identified the account holder of the “Will Vogel” Facebook account, which provided them with a phone number, allowing them to track the account back to a Samsung phone and an address in Dutchess County.
During the investigation, the FBI was also able to track Vogel’s vehicle using License Plate Readers. Vogel’s vehicle was spotted on the Henry Hudson Bridge shortly after 6 a.m. on the day of the riot, down to the Delaware Memorial Bridge two hours later, and eventually in Baltimore on the Harbor Tunnel Thruway at approximately 9:15 a.m.
Later that day, Vogel’s vehicle was seen traveling back northbound at approximately 5 p.m. and back to the George Washington Bridge shortly before midnight.
On Thursday, Jan. 7, Vogel allegedly shared videos from inside the riot with another user on Facebook, after which the two discussed the events in Washington, D.C. including a photo of Vogel that was shown on the news.
In the photo, Vogel can be seen carrying a large red hat and the same jacket the driver of Vogel’s vehicle was wearing as it was tracked from New York to D.C. Investigators noted that a large red hat was also in the car, and that Vogel had previously posted a photo of himself wearing a similar hat.
According to the FBI, in a separate Facebook conversation, Vogel stated that "So they have these shadow twitter (sic) accounts and they're trying to report me to the FBI/DOJ and put me away for 10 years for Domestic Terrorism, because of my snapchat (sic) story, where I simply walked into the lobby of the capital” and “And didn’t even film anything crime wise”
Vogel was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, knowingly engaging in disorderly or disruptive conduct in any restricted building or grounds, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
According to an NBC report, an AR-type rifle was recovered from Vogel's home when he was arrested this week. He appeared in White Plains federal court via teleconference and released with travel restrictions in place. He is also prohibited from possessing firearms. Vogel is scheduled to appear back in court next month in Washington, D.C.
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