Marines Charged in Capitol Riot Got Highly Sensitive Spy Jobs After Jan. 6

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."The three got away without being immediately identified. Abate later said that “he heard how the event was being portrayed negatively and decided that he should not tell anybody about going into the U.S. Capitol Building,” according to the complaint.

Coomer was apparently the first to be identified by the FBI. On August 13, 2021, a federal search warrant was served on Facebook authorizing the search of the Instagram account of “mrcoomer08.” Coomer had posted photos from inside the Capitol on January 6 to his personal account, with the caption: “Glad to be apart [sic] of history.” In a separate Instagram conversation on January 31, 2021, Coomer said that “everything in this country is corrupt. We honestly need a fresh restart. I’m waiting for the boogaloo.”

“What’s a boogaloo,” the user he was talking to asked, according to the government’s complaint.

“Civil war 2,” Coomer replied.

In addition to acknowledging his involvement in the insurrection through his social media posts, Coomer was also identified by a witness in the Marines who picked him out of footage taken inside the Capitol, the complaint says.

It took investigators nearly another year to confront Abate about his presence in the Capitol that day. In June 2022, Abate was interviewed as part of his security clearance process, and admitted going into the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection with “two buddies.”

Abate said that as they walked through the rotunda, one of his friends smoked a cigarette and they “tried not to get hit with tear gas,” according to the complaint. Abate also admitted that he had decided to keep his involvement secret. When contacted by phone, relatives of Coomer and Hellonen declined to comment on the case. David Dischley, an attorney for Abate, said the next hearing in the case is scheduled for March 21 in federal court in Washington."...