In early November 2020, Joshua Macias (photo, left) traveled from Virginia to Philadelphia where he and a confederate were arrested outside a building where votes were being counted (details here).
“Police recovered handguns, an AR-15-style rifle, 160 rounds of ammo, a lock-picking kit and a samurai sword,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, along with a plan to seize “fake ballots.”
He and his co-defendant are awaiting trial on felony “weapons- and election-related charges” stemming from that caper (read story here).
Now, video has surfaced showing Macias meeting with the Enrique Tarrio and Stewart Rhodes, the leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, in an underground parking garage the evening before the Capitol riot. Both Tarrio and Rhodes have since been indicted for seditious conspiracy.
The D.A. is arguing that meeting was a violation of his bail conditions.
Macias, who hasn’t been charged in connection with the Capitol riot, but was there livestreaming and calling Pence a “Benedict Arnold” with a makeshift gallows in the background, merely went to Philadelphia to “monitor how the ballots were being counted,” according to one of his pals. His attorney claims he was just “exercising his right of free assembly and right of free speech.”
Yeah? Then what did he need the lock-picking kit for? And why does anyone needs guns to observe ballot counting? Both the D.A. and the chairwoman of the Philadelphia City Commissioners have characterized his arrest as “a mass shooting narrowly averted.”