Man arrested in Chicago on charges of breaching US Capitol with mob; ‘I was tear-gassed ... but I still stayed on the front lines’
A man was arrested in Chicago on Tuesday on federal charges alleging he illegally breached the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot and later bragged to a friend he’d been hit with tear gas and mace by police “but I still stayed on the front lines.”
Athanasios Zoyganeles, 44, who has previously lived in Chicago and northwest Indiana, was charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Washington with misdemeanor counts of unlawfully entering a restricted government building and disorderly conduct on U.S. Capitol grounds, court records show.
The complaint was made public Tuesday in advance of his initial appearance before a federal magistrate judge in Chicago, who ordered him released on his own recognizance. A lawyer for Zoyganeles could not immediately be reached.
According to the charges, Zoyganeles had planned on traveling to Washington for weeks before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, messaging one friend in December 2020 he was “down for whatever.”
“It’s time we take this country back,” Zoyganeles wrote, according to the complaint.
About 10 days after the attack, a tipster gave the FBI a screenshot of Zoyganeles’ Facebook profile and said he had posted a “very creepy video of him in the Capitol saying ‘Nazis, where are you??’ ” the complaint alleged.
The tipster said Zoyganeles was also part of a group going into offices and going through books and files, according to the complaint. Zoyganeles took down the video later that day.
The FBI used phone records to determine that Zoyganeles’ phone was in the vicinity of the Capitol on Jan. 6. Surveillance footage showed him in a black and red “Trump” hat entering through the Parliamentary Doors with a mob and taking videos on his phone while inside, according to the complaint.
Zoyganeles was seen in another camera angle standing on the Capitol steps holding a piece of wood and smoking a cigarette, the complaint alleged.
Later that same day, a Facebook user messaged Zoyganeles on the social media platform to ask if he was OK, according to the complaint.
“No I rushed the capital and lost everyone I was with,” Zoyganeles allegedly responded. “i was teargassed maced and they were throwing flash bangs at me but I still stayed on the front lines. It wasn’t easy but we did it.
In October, the FBI met with a close relative of Zoyganeles, who confirmed he was the person in the surveillance images, according to the complaint.
Zoyganeles’ arrest brought the number of people arrested in Illinois on charges stemming from the Capitol breach to at least 27. The ongoing investigation has been described by prosecutors as the largest criminal investigation in the country’s history.
Nationwide, more than 725 people have been arrested in all 50 states and the District of Columbia on charges stemming from the Capitol breach, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Like Zoyganeles, most of those arrested in Illinois have been charged with misdemeanors that do not allege they participated in any violence. Among those charged with trespassing are a Chicago cop, two North Shore brothers, an HVAC repairman from Chicago’s Northwest Side, and, last week, a Brazilian woman living in suburban Indian Head Park.
Others face felony charges, including James Robert Elliott, 24, of Aurora, who was charged in December with using a flagpole to assault officers while illegally on the Capitol grounds.
