A year after insurrectionist riots at the U.S. Capitol, a fourth Delawarean has been charged by federal authorities.
Nicholas Lattanzi of Millsboro was arrested on Tuesday and charged with four crimes associated with trespassing and disorderly conduct inside the U.S. Capitol.
According to charging documents, an FBI agent in the Baltimore field office, which covers Delaware, had been watching Lattanzi in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6.
FBI Task Force Officer Patrick Ramone wrote in court documents that in December 2020, weeks before the insurrection, the University of Delaware Police Department referred him to a TikTok post by Lattanzi, who court documents describe as a “former University of Delaware student.”
In the post, Lattanzi is wearing a camouflage jacket with the caption: “New jacket who wants to commit war crimes in Bosnia with me?”
Editor’s note: Read the FBI affidavit associated with the charges.
Ramone wrote that after becoming aware of the post, he monitored the public page where Lattanzi posted under the username @benshapiro.v2.
On the morning of Jan. 6, the images were posted to the account of a road with the caption “DC Bound.” Later, it featured a selfie of Lattanzi wearing a brown cowboy hat with a gold Burger King paper crown atop it and him wearing a flag around his shoulders like a cape. The post states, “Met up with the BOOOOYYYYYSSSS,” tagging other TikTok users.
Those other users later posted images depicting men that include a man resembling Lattanzi near the U.S. Capitol, Ramone wrote.
Four months later, federal authorities interviewed Lattanzi at his home in Millsboro.
Ramone showed the TikTok posts to Lattanzi who confirmed that he is in the photographs and they were taken in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6. He did say that he didn’t know the other TikTok users in the offline world. He also told Ramone he had given up his @benshapiro.v2 TikTok account for Lent.
He told the FBI agent he went to Washington D.C. to “support my president,” that the U.S. Capitol building was targeted because “we were betrayed by the people who represent us” and that the rally turned violent because of “(former Vice President) Mike Pence and Republicans turning on us.”
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He told Ramone he did not receive any guidance or direction from others to participate in the insurrection, that he was not affiliated with any group that attended, and that he did not enter the U.S. Capitol building.
The next day, Ramone was contacted by a person who claimed to represent Lattanzi, stating that he wished to amend Lattanzi’s statements. Two weeks later, Lattanzi sat back down with federal authorities in Dover.
In this interview, Lattanzi said he entered the U.S. Capitol through a door that had already been broken, that he did not see any “no trespassing” signs, that he did not steal or participate in any vandalism, that he had no physical contact with police and that he exited the building when ordered by police.
He also showed the officer pictures from inside the U.S. Capitol that he had on his phone.
The FBI agent wrote that surveillance video from inside the building shows Lattanzi entering through a broken door and exiting the building five minutes later.
The agent also interviewed an unidentified person that Lattanzi said he stayed with the night before the insurrection and returned to the night after.
That person said that Lattanzi returned that night and greeted him with a hug and that the person could smell pepper spray on Lattanzi and that his eyes burned after the hug.
The person also said Lattanzi told him that he entered the building, didn’t go far, that he was hit by batons, pushed by shields and sprayed with pepper spray upon exiting the building. Lattanzi told the person that blood on his flag was from someone else and did not say anything about assaulting or fighting police, according to the FBI interview notes in court documents.
Lattanzi was ultimately booked on charges of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in the Capitol building and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, charges that carry the potential for prison time.
No attorney representing Lattanzi was listed in court documents as of Wednesday.
Lattanzi joins three other Delawareans waiting for the resolution of their charges associated with the Jan. 6 insurrection. Five people died in or shortly after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, including a police officer. Two other officers killed themselves afterward and dozens of police officers were injured that day. Hundreds of people have been charged with federal offenses.
Anthony Antonio, a Delaware native who now works out of state, has pleaded not guilty to multiple crimes associated with the insurrection.
An affidavit signed by an FBI agent seeking charges against Antonio states that the Delaware native climbed scaffolding outside the Capitol, briefly entered the building through a broken window, poured water toward an officer being dragged down steps by rioters, got hold of a riot shield and gas mask and made threatening statements toward officers.
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In public statements following his arrest, Antonio said he went to Washington D.C. motivated by false news coverage on networks like Fox News and Newsmax peddling Republican lies that the election had been stolen. He said when violence began to grow around him on the steps of the Capitol, he sought to tamp it down, causing the crowd to turn on him.
Hunter and Kevin Seefried, a father and son from Laurel, are also charged with crimes associated with trespassing on U.S. Capitol grounds. Kevin Seefried, the father, was famously photographed parading a Confederate flag in the building. Both have pleaded not guilty to federal charges.
Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareon
