Mark Sami Ibrahim, of Orange County, Calif., is said to have joined the mob that stormed the restricted area around the Capitol, though he is not accused of actually breaking into the building, according to a criminal complaint.
Federal prosecutors say Ibrahim repeatedly flashed his badge and DEA-issued handgun to other rioters and posed for pictures with those items on Capitol grounds.
Charging documents include photos Ibrahim sent to a WhatsApp group chat with at least five other law enforcement officers, including one of him holding a flag that read “Liberty or Death” next to the collapsed barricades.
Prosecutors say Ibrahim also posted to the group chat a video of protester Ashli Babbitt being moved on a gurney into an ambulance after she was fatally shot by a Capitol police officer during the siege.
But the friend denied that he was there in any official capacity, and said Ibrahim had made up the story in an effort to “cover his ass,” according to the complaint.
Though he allegedly admitted to being on Capitol grounds, Ibrahim denied in interviews with investigators that he had displayed his badge and gun
In an interview with Fox News that month, Ibrahim said that after the riot, he “got on a flight back to LA
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