A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent has been arrested for allegedly participating in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. The agent, Mark Sami Ibrahim, allegedly flashed his badge and a DEA-issued handgun during the riot. Authorities said he entered the restricted area around the Capitol and also climbed on the Peace Memorial at the foot of Capitol Hill. Ibrahim, who lives in Orange County, California, was a probationary employee of the DEA. He had given notice of his planned resignation, according to a court filing.
A U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration agent has been arrested for allegedly
participating in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of
then-President Donald Trump.
The
agent, Mark Sami Ibrahim, allegedly flashed his badge and a DEA-issued handgun
during the riot while posing for photos with those items. Photos of him doing
so are included in a court filing.
Authorities
said he entered the restricted area around the Capitol and also climbed on the
Peace Memorial at the foot of Capitol Hill.
And he
participated “in a WhatsApp group chat with at least five other law enforcement
officers” during the invasion of the Capitol grounds, the court filing said.
That
filing also says that after Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot by a
police officer inside the Capitol, as she crawled through a window leading to
the House of Representatives chamber, she was taken outside on a gurney and
passed “within steps of Ibrahim.”
A friend
of Ibrahim’s who was standing with him videotaped Babbitt as “she was being
moved past them” into an ambulance,” the filing said.
“Ibrahim
subsequently posted that video to the WhatsApp group chat,” the court filing
said.
Ibrahim,
who lives in Orange County, California, was a probationary employee of the DEA
at the time of the riot, which began after Trump urged attendees at a rally
outside the White House to march to the Capitol and fight against the
confirmation by Congress of the election of Joe Biden as president that day.
He had
given notice of his planned resignation several weeks before the invasion of
the Capitol by a horde of Trump backers, according to the court filing.
“He was
not on duty for the DEA and had no role as a law enforcement officer on the
Capitol grounds,” that filing said. That document also said that Ibrahim was on
personal leave from the DEA when he traveled to Washington, D.C.
A friend
of Ibrahim’s told FBI agents that he went to the protest “to promote himself,”
while considering launching a podcast and cigar brand, the filing said.
Cell-phone
data shows that Ibrahim arrived at the Capitol grounds at about 1:06 p.m. on
Jan. 6 — about 13 minutes after a crowd began breaking down fencing barricading
the grounds — and that three minutes later he “posed for several photographs in
which he flashed and displayed his DEA badge and firearm.”
“Ibrahim’s
friend took these photos at Ibrahim’s request,” the court document says.
Video
posted on the Internet shows Ibrahim at about 1:45 p.m. that day carrying a
flagpole with a flag sporting a blue five-pointed star and the words “LIBERTY
OR DEATH,” the court filing says. At the time, Ibrahim was about 400 feet
inside the first set of fencing that had barricaded the Capitol.
“At
approximately 2:10 PM, Ibrahim took a video of himself, which he subsequently
posted to the WhatsApp group chat [with other law enforcement officers],
standing in the crowd on a patch of grass above the United States Capitol
visitor’s center between the East Portico of the Capitol and the Senate,” the
filing says.
“Question
Mark, you are carrying your duty weapon and your badge/creds?” one WhatsApp
group chat member asked Ibrahim, referring to his DEA credentials, the filing
noted. “I need to know this mark.”
Ibrahim
later became the subject of an investigation conducted by the Justice
Department’s Office of the Inspector General, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office
for the District of Columbia.
As part
of that probe, he was questioned by an agent with the OIG’s office, with his
attorney present, via video conference on March 15, according to the court
filing.
After
being advised not to lie to the agent, which would be a federal crime, Ibrahim
admitted being at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and acknowledged that he was carrying
his DEA badge and credentials, as well as his agency-issued sidearm.
“Ibrahim
denied that he displayed or exposed his DEA badge and firearm at the Capitol,”
the filing said. “Specifically, Ibrahim stated “I had my creds. I had my
firearm, and my badge on me . . . But never exposed . . . Not that I know of.”
“During
his interview, Ibrahim acknowledged hearing the tear gas canisters going off—he
said he heard the booms,” the filing said.
Ibrahim
also told the OIG agent that he went to the Capitol that day with a friend and
relative, at the friend’s request, according to the filing.
Ibrahim
claimed that his friend “had been asked by the FBI to document the event, and
that he went along with his friend to assist with that effort,” according to
the court document.
The
friend later told the OIG agent that “Ibrahim crafted this story ... in an
effort to ‘cover his a--,’ ” and that the friend had never received any
direction from the FBI to document the riot.
“According
to Ibrahim’s friend, Ibrahim went to the rally in order to promote himself,”
the filing said. “Ibrahim had been thinking about his next move after leaving
the DEA and wanted the protests to be his stage for launching a ‘Liberty
Tavern’ political podcast and cigar brand.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/20/dea-agent-arrested-for-participating-in-jan-6-capitol-riot-by-trump-supporters.html