HowtheFBI identified a Westport man accused of assaulting police on Jan. 6
Aug. 10—Then on July 26, 2022, one year and nearly seven months after the attack, a tipster provided the FBI with a name for the unidentified man.
On Wednesday, authorities arrested Benjamin Cohen of Westport on felony charges of civil disorder and assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers. The 21-year-old is also facing misdemeanor charges related to the riot, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia said.
Authorities allege Cohen, the ninth Connecticut suspect to be charged in the deadly breach of the Capitol, assaulted police during the riot. Video shows he was part of the mob that gathered at the lower west terrace entrance and tried to break through a line of police with a "heave ho" motion, according to court filings. That evidence places Cohen near another prominent Connecticut defendant in the Capitol breach: Patrick McCaughey III, a Ridgefield resident, was among the rioters gathered at the front of the crowd trying to break through the line of police.
McCaughey was later convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison for crushing a police officer into a door frame at the entranceway using a stolen riot shield.
In the government's statement of facts contained in the criminal complaint against Cohen, a task force officer with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in Bridgeport wrote that once the tip came in, the FBI compared photos of Cohen from the riot with his Connecticut DMV photo. Records gave his last known address as Westport, according to the court filing.
On Dec. 13, 2022, the FBI interviewed someone Cohen had known through work. The former associate, who isn't named in the statement of facts, identified Cohen in four photographs from the riot.
The FBI also interviewed Cohen's parents separately at Cohen's home in Westport. His father told investigators Cohen drove to Washington on Jan. 6 with his mother to attend the political rally that day.
After the rally, Cohen's father told investigators, he learned his son walked to the Capitol building and entered the grounds around 2 p.m.
His father told investigators that "COHEN admitted that he joined a crowd on the front steps of the building and got 'tear gassed."
His mother confirmed to investigators that she went to D.C. with Cohen for the rally, but said that she lost contact with her son at the Capitol's outer barricades and that Cohen "proceeded closer to the Capitol building."
From police body cam footage, surveillance video and other "open source video," authorities believe Cohen assaulted "multiple police officers" on the west plaza of the Capitol between 2:28 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. He then joined rioters in the lower west terrace tunnel around 2:48 p.m. and took part in two "heave ho" motions by the mob at 2:51 p.m. and 2:56 p.m. "to physically break through police lines," the investigating officer wrote in the statement of facts. Video also captured Cohen inside an office to the left of the lower west terrace entrance, according to the court filing.
On the plaza, police body cam footage captured Cohen moving up to the police barricades with a group of rioters around 2:28 p.m., the task force officer, whose name is redacted, wrote in the statement of facts.
"Just before 2:29 p.m., COHEN joined rioters breaching the police line and moved toward a group of officers," the court filing stated.
Video then captured him "pushing and shoving" police with his hands as the crowd moved forward. Other video from the riot also shows Cohen shouting "our house!" on the plaza.
Around 2:48 p.m., video showed Cohen entering the lower west terrace tunnel, where the mob was attempting to break through police guarding an entrance to the Capitol. He then made his way "deeper into the mob," the court filing states.
"Just before approximately 2:51 p.m., COHEN pushed against the rioter in front of him, and additional rioters joined the pushing effort around and behind him," the statement of facts reported. "Together, the mob pushed in a 'heave ho' effort against the police line until about 2:51:20 p.m."
Video showed Cohen retreat back toward the mouth of the tunnel, but he then reversed course and headed back toward the line of police.
"At one point, COHEN observed another rioter just to COHEN's left deploying a chemical spray against the police," the statement of facts said.
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The court filing stated he moved up closer to the police line and "continued to aid other rioters in pushing against the police line—despite deployments of chemical spray and baton strikes by the officers."
Around 2:56 p.m., more rioters rushed into the tunnel, and the crowd attempted another "heave ho" motion to try to break through the line of police, the court filing states.
Cohen retreated around 3:05 p.m. after he was apparently pepper-sprayed in the face by police, the statement of facts said. He then left the tunne but at some point afterward was caught on video inside an office protesters broke into near the lower west terrace.
