An accountant whose practice is based in Mineola has been arrested for allegedly participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riots, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York has reported.
Justin McAuliffe, a Bellmore resident whose McAuliffe CPA Enterprises P.C. is located at 34 Willis Avenue in Mineola, was arrested on Thursday morning when it was found that he had posted pictures to his Facebook page and other accounts indicating that he had been inside the Capitol building during the riots, according to a statement of facts from FBI Agent Gary Battista, a member of the bureau’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force.
The Jan. 6 riots occurred when a mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump overwhelmed Capitol Police and stormed the Capitol Building in Washington D.C., bringing a sudden halt to the arguments concerning electoral votes over then-President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. Members of Congress were placed into lockdown, and five deaths resulted.
Battista further said that two witnesses had provided the pictures from McAuliffe’s Facebook page placing him there during the proceedings, including one post with a series of photos captioned, “You’re welcome.”
A screencap from McAuliffe’s phone also posted to his Facebook, showed that he had access to WiFi inside the U.S. Senate offices, “indicating that he was close to or inside the Senate offices,” Battista said.
One photo obtained by the FBI from a Slate magazine article shows McAuliffe and another person inside a Congressional office, flashing the peace sign with a Trump flag placed on the flagpole. Battista said that a cropped version of this image was used by McAuliffe as the photo for his account on the end-to-end encrypted smartphone messaging app Telegram, which the FBI found after a witness gave the bureau McAuliffe’s phone number.
Another image provided by a witness shows a conversation in McAuliffe’s Facebook comments in which he admitted to going into a Congressional office:
“yeah I was in one of the offices,” McAuliffe wrote. “Some people were smoking a joint in the room, lol. Cops came in and weee like. Okay guys really? They didn’t even ask us to leave right away. They let us sit down and hang out and relax.”
Based on the evidence, Battista wrote that McAuliffe, 39, will be charged with “knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority to” do so; and “knowingly, and with intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions, engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct in, or within such proximity to, any restricted building or grounds when, or so that, such conduct, in fact, impedes or disrupts the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions.”
He is scheduled to be arraigned today at the federal courthouse in Central Islip. McAuliffe will be defended by Randi Chavis of the L.I. Federal Defenders office. Prosecuting the case is Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Grubin. Further details to come.
