An attorney representing a former federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent who was arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol incident said Thursday that his client committed “no crime” and accused the Justice Department of missing the mark in building its case.
“It’s hard to see, based on the facts and the 16-page charging document that we have read, what exactly the crime here is that would justify 15 years in prison,” Carlson said, before asking Richie to comment.
“To me it looks like we really have a Department of Justice seeking quantity over quality,” the attorney said. “I don’t see any crime here.”
“The particular crime that you just mentioned, with regard to 5104, in particular section (b), describes injuries to property,” Richie continued. “No property was injured, no person was injured, no violence was committed. He didn’t enter or breach Capitol grounds whatsoever. There’s no crime and we intend to defeat all of the charges in short order.”
Ibrahim, who also took part in the interview, said that he had been encouraged by a friend and FBI informant to breach the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“I think he asked me to go with him to protect him and I think he was there to document. Both him and I were seeking to protect the public that day,” Ibrahim said. “We went there with the intention of seeking those who wished to do our government harm, to stop them, and to protect those who peacefully protest.”
The agent added that, while he was on the Capitol grounds, he walked up to the FBI SWAT team and offered them his assistance.
“Individuals on that team have my personal phone number and, yes, I was carrying my firearm because I was a credentialed DEA agent—I’m expected to,” he said.
He added that he does not believe the FBI informant that he brought to the rally that day “was malicious or trying to entrap me in any way, shape, or form.”
“I think we were just trying to do the best we could with what we had,” Ibrahim said. “It was chaos and we went there with the intention to protect the public.”
But the special agent said in the charging document that Ibrahim’s friend told the FBI that he was “not there in any formal capacity for the FBI and that the FBI was not giving him directions or marching orders.”
The friend told the special agent that Ibrahim “crafted this story in an effort to ‘cover his [expletive]” and that the real reason he was there was to promote himself and use the protests as a “stage for launching a ’Liberty Tavern' political podcast and cigar brand.”
Ibrahim is the first federal law enforcement officer to be arrested in connection to the Jan. 6 incident. So far, more than 500 people have been arrested in connection to the Capitol breach.