KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Federal authorities have arrested a former member of the Missouri National Guard on misdemeanor charges in connection with the Capitol riot, court documents show.
Brian Scott McGee was arrested in Jefferson City on Thursday after being charged Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, according to the criminal complaint.
McGee is charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building or grounds; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building. All are misdemeanors.
He is the 25th Missouri resident to be charged in a Capitol riot case.
McGee had his first appearance Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri in Jefferson City, court records show. He was released on bond and has a hearing scheduled for Feb. 21 in federal court in Washington, D.C.
According to the charging document, authorities served a search warrant on Google and found that a cellphone associated with McGee was present at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Another search warrant, issued to AT&T for cell towers providing service to the Capitol, showed that a phone with a number previously belonging to McGee was inside the building on Jan. 6.
An FBI agent then compared McGee’s driver’s license photo with Capitol surveillance video and identified him entering the Capitol building through the Senate Wing doors on the northwest side of the building, the document said. It said he was in the building for just under two minutes.
McGee spoke with one other person, later identified as Jeremy Christian Harrison, while inside the building but conducted no other activities, the document said. McGee left the Capitol through the same door he entered.
Harrison, of Florida, also was arrested Thursday and faces the same charges as McGee.
According to the charging document, McGee was contacted by phone on Aug. 4, 2021, to schedule a personal interview with the FBI. He said he had traveled to Washington to attend the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” rally.
“McGee said that he heard people in the crowd saying that U.S. Capitol police officers were allowing people to enter the U. S. Capitol building,” the document said. “McGee further claimed that he observed four or five U.S. Capitol police officers wearing riot gear gesture for people to enter the U.S. Capitol and fist bumping them as they walked by.”
The document said that “a review of Capitol CCTV in the area where McGee entered the Capitol does not corroborate McGee’s statement that police waved rioters into the building and fist-bumped them as they entered.”
On Oct. 27, 2021, the document said, the FBI interviewed “Witness 1,” who was one of McGee’s former supervisors when McGee was in the Missouri National Guard. The former supervisor identified the man in the surveillance images as McGee.
The next day, the document said, the FBI interviewed “Witness 2,” who worked at the Columbia Regional Airport Safety Department.
“Witness 2 is personally familiar with McGee because McGee occasionally works at the Columbia Regional Airport,” the document said. It said that “Witness 2” identified McGee as the man in the video and images taken during the riot.
Also that day, the document said, the FBI interviewed “Witness 3,” who was McGee’s former supervisor at the Federal Aviation Administration Tech Operations Office. That person identified McGee in the videos and photos as well.
An FBI agent interviewed McGee in person on Feb. 14, 2022, the document said, and showed him still photos taken from the Capitol surveillance video.
“McGee identified himself, wearing a red hat and having a small U.S. flag, as one of the individuals in the surveillance video that unlawfully entered the Capitol,” it said. McGee then provided the clothing that he was wearing that day to his attorney, who allowed the agent to photograph it.
During the Feb. 14 interview, the document said, McGee told the agent he had entered the Capitol with “Jeremy” and another person, whose name was redacted. McGee said he had met the two online and didn’t know their last names but knew they were from Florida.
The FBI’s Kansas City office tracked the men down by examining McGee’s phone records, the document said.
Florida FBI agents interviewed Jeremy Christian Harrison on June 30, 2022, the document said, and Harrison told them he and the other man had met McGee at the Crystal City Marriott in Washington.
Harrison admitted entering the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to the document. Harrison said that before he went in, he saw a person in tactical gear who he thought was law enforcement, directing people inside the building.
“Once he entered the building, Harrison recalled seeing police inside the building appearing to block off one area but allowing people to continue to another area,” the document said. “Harrison stated that he thought it was ‘ok’ to be inside the Capitol building at first, but then noticed the ‘chaos’ and heard people screaming and therefore decided to leave the building.”
The other person also was interviewed, the charging document said. That person told authorities he was with McGee and Harrison on the Capitol grounds that day but did not go inside.
———
