PORTLAND, Ore. — In the hours after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley posted a video on Twitter of himself returning to his office to find it ransacked. The video showed wall art that had been torn down and a stamped-out cigarette butt.
Newly released video footage shows how the mayhem in Merkley’s office unfolded earlier in the day. About 20 rioters can be seen packing into Merkley's private hideaway office in videos KGW obtained from the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to federal prosecutors, 25-year-old Felipe Marquez shot the video on his cell phone. Marquez was the first from that group inside Merkley’s office to be sentenced in December. The Florida man pleaded guilty to a single charge and received 18 months of probation, including three months of home detention.
The government used the videos as court exhibits. Federal prosecutors said many of them had been posted on social media — including video of Marquez driving his Tesla from Florida to Washington DC.
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According to the Department of Justice, Marquez stormed the Capitol and, once inside, he repeatedly asked Capitol Police officers for selfies and fist bumps.
Marquez spent about 10 minutes with other rioters inside Merkley’s office, prosecutors said. He was arrested almost a week later after a tipster saw the videos on Snapchat and provided them to the FBI.