COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — The FBI says a Virginia man charged with storming the U.S. Capitol told an undercover agent that he belonged to a militia-style group and coordinated surveillance efforts on the same building more than a month after the riot.
A court filing unsealed on Tuesday and obtained by The Associated Press doesn't specify a possible motive for Fi Duong and an associate to surveil the Capitol for weeks after the Jan. 6 insurrection.
But the filing says the undercover agent attended meetings of Duong’s group and that investigators intercepted communications about post-riot surveillance work.
The group, which called themselves a “Bible study,” discussed firearms and other training, according to court documents.
Duong is charged with illegally entering the Capitol, obstructing the vote count, and disorderly conduct. He isn’t charged with plotting any violence. Prosecutors didn’t seek his pretrial detention after he was arrested on Friday. His attorney declined to comment.
According to court records obtained by The Washington Post, the 27-year-old suspect had several guns, including an AK-47, and material to make about 50 Molotov cocktails at the time of his arrest. Duong allegedly told the agent that the explosives were for disabling armored vehicles.
Before his arrest, Duong and the undercover agent toured a jail in Virginia, where the suspect talked about testing explosives and said he was working on a “manifesto,” court documents say. He’s also accused of discussing how far he could shoot on his family’s property if there was ever a raid and that it could be the site of a second Waco, referring to a deadly Texas confrontation with federal agents in 1993.
