Three Active-Duty Marines Charged in Jan. 6 Attack
One of the Marines said that he was waiting for “the boogaloo,” or a second civil war, according to court records.
Three active-duty Marines assigned to intelligence-related jobs were charged this week with participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to court records, which showed that one of the Marines said that he was waiting for a second civil war.
The Marines, Cpl. Micah Coomer, Sgt. Joshua Abate and Sgt. Dodge Dale Hellonen, were arrested on Wednesday and face charges of disorderly conduct and unlawfully entering the Capitol building, according to court records.
Video footage and photographs taken during the attack showed that the three Marines were inside the Capitol for about 52 minutes while demonstrators fought with police officers and ransacked the building, according to a federal affidavit.
Sergeant Abate’s lawyer, David Dischley, declined to comment on Saturday. Court records did not list lawyers for Corporal Coomer and Sergeant Hellonen.
Corporal Coomer had posted several photos that appeared to be taken inside the Capitol on Instagram with the caption “Glad to be apart of history,” according to an affidavit. In a private conversation on Instagram on Nov. 7, 2020, he said that the election was unfair, the affidavit said.
Investigators also found that in a January 2021 Instagram conversation, Corporal Coomer said that “everything in this country is corrupt,” and that “a fresh restart” was needed.
“I’m waiting for the boogaloo,” he said, referring to an antigovernment extremist movement that seeks to start a second civil war. The person he was chatting with asked, “what’s a boogaloo,” and Corporal Coomer responded “Civil war 2.”
Sergeant Abate, in a June 2022 interview as part of his security clearance, said that he had entered the Capitol with two “buddies,” the affidavit said. In the interview, he said that his friend had smoked a cigarette while they were in the Rotunda and that they “walked around and tried not to get hit with tear gas.”
Sergeant Abate said in the interview that he had heard the riot was being portrayed negatively and he decided that he should not tell anyone he had been there.