What to Know
- A disc jockey from Farmingdale, Long Island, was arrested Tuesday morning by the FBI -- the latest tri-state arrest in connection to the deadly U.S. Capitol siege that took place last month.
- Among the crimes Greg Rubenacker faces is accused of is knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority to do so; as well as knowingly, and with intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions.
- The misdemeanor charges will be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Attorney information for Rubenacker was not immediately known.
A disc jockey from Farmingdale, Long Island, was arrested Tuesday morning by the FBI -- the latest tri-state arrest in connection to the deadly U.S. Capitol siege that took place last month.
Greg Rubenacker is accused of: knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority to do so; knowingly, and with intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions; willfully and knowingly utter loud, threatening, or abusive language, or engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct, at any place in the Grounds or in any of the Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, or disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress or either House of Congress; and parade, demonstrate, or picket in any of the Capitol Buildings, according to federal documents.
The misdemeanor charges will be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Attorney information for Rubenacker was not immediately known.
The 25-year-old appeared in federal court in Central Islip Tuesday afternoon via teleconference, and was freed on $50,000 bond. When the charges of "violent entry and disorderly conduct" at the Capitol were read in court, Rubenacker said "both of those are wrong." He told NBC New York that he was not involved in any violence at the Capitol.
According to federal documents, multiple tipsters have provided Snapchat videos to the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center (NOTC) following the Jan. 6 violent breach of the U.S. Capitol. On Jan. 11, according to the FBI documents, a witness submitted a recording of a Snapchat story that Rubenacker allegedly posted from his account. The witness stated that Rubenacker had sent multiple Snapchat videos to the witness from inside the Capitol building on Jan. 6.
In the alleged Snapchat story, the first video depicts a crowd of individuals with the Washington Monument visible in the background. At about twenty-four seconds into the recording, according to the federal documents, the Snapchat story switches to the second video segment. In it, the user recording the video is following other rioters inside what appears to be the Capitol. The user making the recording can be heard saying, “Holy s---! This is history! We took the Capitol!”
Federal documents state that in another recording, Rubenacker is seen in the Capitol Rotunda apparently vaping and then smoking what appears to be a joint. At one point, according to the documents, Rubenacker looks into the camera and says, “Smoke out the Capitol, baby.” He then shows others sitting near him and smoking in the Rotunda. One of the other individuals then says “How many joints we have?” and can be seen counting the people around him smoking, including Rubenacker who is allegedly holding his marijuana cigarette up in the air.
Rubenacker is the latest tri-state area arrest in connection to the violent events that unfolded early last month when a mob of former President Donald Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. The brother of a former NYPD officer, an MTA worker and a sanitation worker were among those arrested in the days and weeks following the riot.
