New video shows Capitol rioter frothing at the mouth
The former Tennessee National Guard officer was denied pretrial release in May
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Your support makes all the difference.Newly released video shows an accused 6 January Capitol riot suspect literally foaming at the mouth with anger as he berates officers guarding Congress, calling them “cowards.”
In the police body camera clip, Joseph Lino Padilla, a former Tennessee national guardsmen, can be seen in a scuba mask as he hurls insults at the Metropolitan Police Department officers manning the barricades outside the Capitol steps.
"You’re f***ing defending a machine that doesn’t even f***ing care about you," Mr Padilla says. "But if you let us in there, that machine will be gone, and we will f***ing protect you. You’re being a moral coward. You are a moral coward. You know what you’re doing is wrong."
Pictures show him appearing to froth at the mouth as he shouts.
He was arrested earlier this year on six Capitol riot-related charges, including assaulting law enforcement officers with a dangerous or deadly weapon. Video evidence uncovered by prosecutors allegedly shows Mr Padilla throwing a flagpole at police.
Mr Padilla, a stay-at-home father, allegedly spent the months leading up to the 6 January riot becoming indoctrinated with alt-right ideas and a “Q-Anon mentality,” according to court documents.
Social media video captured him allegedly exhorting fellow rioters to “Push! F***ing push!” against barricades around the Capitol. Later, he was allegedly filmed throwing a flag pole at police officers and using a giant metal Trump sign as a “battering ram.”
After the insurrection was over, Mr Padilla allegedly posted about his exploits on Facebook and a Donald Trump message board, according to prosecutors.
“I was right there,” he reportedly wrote in one post. “I have the wounds to prove it. I pushed the rails, I pushed the stairs, and then pushed the doorway. I was beaten unconscious twice, sprayed more times than I care to count, received strikes from batons that should have been lethal (Multiple temple and carotid strikes) except that God was on my side.”
Eventually, an anonymous tipster alerted the FBI to the videos of the riot allegedly captured Mr Padilla, and he was arrested in February.
The 40-year-old, of Cleveland, Tennessee, was honourably discharged from the Tennessee National Guard in 2012.
Prosecutors have argued his military service makes his alleged crimes even more serious because he ‘knew that what occurred on January 6th was totally unacceptable,” the said earlier this year, adding, “He previously swore an oath to defend the country from all enemies foreign and domestic.
He was denied pretrial release in May.
"This Court is hard-pressed to believe that its orders would deter future acts of violence by Padilla when he was undeterred — and seemingly invigorated by — what he says transpired on January 6," federal judge John D Bates wrote in his ruling.
The Independent has reached out to Mr Padilla’s lawyer for comment.
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