PHILADELPHIA — One of two Virginia men awaiting trial in Philadelphia for driving a Hummer filled with weapons to the Pennsylvania Convention Center during the counting of the 2020 election vote has been arrested again — this time for taking part in the Capitol riot.
FBI agents took Antonio LaMotta, 63, into custody Tuesday in Chesapeake, Va., according to court records. A judge in Philadelphia had previously denied a request from prosecutors to revoke his bail for his presence in Washington on the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
At the time, LaMotta’s attorney, Lauren Wimmer, said there was no evidence her client had entered the building and that the social media video prosecutors presented to the court only showed him at a rally that day in support of President Donald Trump.
But in the new case, unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Washington, prosecutors said they’d caught him on security camera footage in a crowd of people who pushed their way into the Capitol Rotunda past guards struggling to keep them out.
LaMotta spent eight minutes inside the building before officers managed to shove the intruders back outside, according to charging documents in his case.
He is charged with four misdemeanor counts including entering a restricted area, disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and illegally demonstrating in the Capitol building — punishable by up to a year in prison.
Federal prosecutors in Washington have not yet indicated whether they will seek to detain him there until trial.
Wimmer did not return requests for comment Tuesday about the new case but has previously described her client as a law-abiding citizen.
On his personal blog, LaMotta describes himself as a father of three, former Army illustrator and a bodyguard. A webpage touting his private security services features his rambling thoughts on “brainwashing Democrats,” “brainless Antifa jerks,” and his belief that the coronavirus pandemic is an “entirely man-made fake ‘natural epidemic.’”
LaMotta and codefendant, Vets for Trump founder Joshua Macias, are slated for trial in Philadelphia in October in connection with the November 2020 incident at the convention center.
The men were arrested Nov. 5 after the FBI relayed a tip to police that armed men from Virginia were headed there in a Hummer emblazoned with QAnon conspiracy stickers hoping to interrupt the counting of the vote in Philadelphia and “straighten things out.”
Officers recovered handguns, an AR-15 style rifle, 160 rounds of ammunition, a lock-picking kit, and a samurai sword.
District Attorney Larry Krasner has since described the incident as a potential mass shooting situation and charged both men with conspiracy, carrying firearms without a license, and interfering with an election.
Days after the Capitol riot, Krasner’s office pushed to have bail for both men revoked, pointing to video they’d posted on their social media accounts of them at the Trump rally in Washington that preceded the insurrection — an apparent violation of their bail conditions in Philadelphia.
In the video, Macias compared then-Vice President Mike Pence to Revolutionary War-era traitor Benedict Arnold and said “the Insurrection Act is now … the domestic enemies are here” as he pointed to the Capitol building.
LaMotta said he was there serving as Macias’ bodyguard.
But at the time, lawyers for the men noted, there was no evidence that Macias or LaMotta had committed a crime by illegally entering the Capitol building.
Since then, more video has surfaced — shot by a British documentarian — that captured Macias meeting with leaders of the extremist groups the Oathkeepers and the Proud Boys in a hotel parking garage the day before the riot.
That footage was recently featured during a hearing organized by the Congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.
Stewart Rhodes, head of the Oathkeepers, and former Proud Boys president Enrique Tarrio — both of whom were also filmed at that meeting — have since been charged with sedition. But to date, prosecutors have not filed a case against Macias in connection with Jan. 6.
His attorney — William J. Brennan, who represents several other defendants charged in the Capitol attack — said Tuesday he was unaware of any new charges pending against his client.
