Carrying a sword and wearing a tactical vest and backpack with a knife and pepper spray, authorities say Kennedy Lindsey rallied her online viewers as she rode to the Capitol on the back of a golf cart Jan. 6.
“The Capitol Building is being stormed as we speak,” she told viewers on the ride to the Capitol, according to an FBI affidavit filed in Washington, D.C., last month. “We’re on our way there … God Bless America motherf—, let’s go.”
In the hours that followed that video, federal prosecutors claim Lindsey and her friend Danielle Lacy, both from Southern California, went into the Capitol building with other insurrectionists before exiting and participating in the violent chaos outside. More than three years since the attempted insurrection, federal authorities continue to identify and charge people who they suspect participated in the event.
In March, the FBI arrested a woman in Northridge they say attacked the media and planned to share weapons with other rioters.
In July, prosecutors filed charges against Lindsey and Lacy. They’re due in court Thursday.
According to the FBI affidavit, the pair flew to Washington after former President Trump falsely claimed he won the 2020 presidential election and announced a rally on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, writing, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
Senators were set to count the electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol and roughly 2 miles away, Trump spoke at the “Stop the Steal” rally at a park south of the White House.
Both Lindsey and Lacy were there then made their way toward the Capitol, during which Lindsey recorded multiple videos on her phone updating her viewers, according to an FBI affidavit in the case.
The women joined the rioters who made their way to the Capitol building, Lindsey wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, documents say. Shortly before 3 p.m., Lindsey said on video, “They tear-gassed this area so I’m sneezing,” according to court records.
She later said, “I should have brought that gas mask.”
Prosecutors say Lindsey was armed with a small arsenal of weapons when she made her way to the Capitol, including a “short sword” strapped to her leg, a steel tactical whip, a collapsible baton, pepper spray, a butterfly knife and a flashlight stun gun in her backpack, according to the FBI affidavit.
She and Lacy entered the Capitol through a broken window around 3:31 p.m., according to surveillance footage from inside the Capitol and Lindsey’s videos. The FBI said the women left the building roughly five minutes later, because they were met by police in riot gear.
For the next two hours, authorities say Lindsey continued to record videos on her phone and was approached by a Secret Service officer at 5:25 p.m. near the Presidential Transition Office. The agent said that Lindsey was doing something suspicious with a metal pole, according to court records.
That’s when the agent saw the sword attached to Lindsey’s leg and found the other weapons during a search of her backpack, the affidavit said. Secret Service agents seized her weapons and Lindsey recorded a TikTok video to complain.
“I was just detained, and they confiscated my sh—,” she said in the video.
In an interview with the FBI in March 2021, Lindsey described the objects in her backpack as “tools” and denied carrying any weapons into the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to the affidavit. She eventually admitted to having them in her backpack inside in a subsequent interview, the affidavit said.
Lindsey was arrested in Los Angeles on July 28 on suspicion of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon and other charges.
According to court records, both women were scheduled to appear before a judge on Thursday in the District of Columbia.
Lacy was arrested the following day on suspicion of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds and other charges. Roughly 1,400 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes since the insurrection.
An email to Lacy’s attorney was not immediately answered. It’s unclear whether Lindsey has any legal representation.