A former high school classmate helped the FBI identify a Minnesota man who was among the crowd that stormed the US Capitol on January 6.
The tipster contacted the FBI a day after the 2021 riot to report that his former high school peer, 43-year-old Martin James Cudo of Lakeville, had participated in the riot, according to court documents viewed by The Independent.
Mr Cudo was subsequently arrested and charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without lawful entry, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building and in a Capitol building and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
The day after the Capitol riots, the FBI received the tip from the former classmate with a selfie Mr Cudo took inside the Capitol building that he posted on social media, the complaint said.
The FBI later received more information from another person who said he was Mr Cudo’s employer, who also identified him in photographs from the day of the riots.
Mr Cudo was interviewed by the FBI a week after the riots, the document said, after he was identified in the tip-offs and he confessed that he was at the riots and only “realised the trouble he may be in” when he returned to his hotel after the insurrection.
The complaint states that he came to Washington DC initially to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally, which preceded the Capitol attack, where then-president Donald Trump spoke to a crowd about how the election was “stolen.”
Mr Cudo snapped a selfie inside the Capitol building during the Jan 6 riots— (U.S. District Court Records)
As the crowd started to surge towards the Capitol building, Mr Cudo followed. The complaint said the FBI asked if he knew barricades would be near the building, but he claimed as he approached, it appeared law enforcement “moved out of the way.”
The complaint uses a range of images from open source footage, CCTV footage and Mr Cudo’s own confessions to track his movements during the riots.
Mr Cudo climbed the northwest stairs, entered through a fire door that another rioter broke down and went into various offices and corridors in the building with other rioters.
Once he left the building, footage showed Mr Cudo standing in front of a police line before the officers removed him and other rioters.
In the complaint, Mr Cudo “acknowledged making comments to law enforcement while at the Capitol but denied becoming physical with them.”
In his interview with the FBI, he told them he left around 5pm back to his hotel.
Mr Cudo told the Star Tribune that he is out of custody and has an attorney, but has no other comment about the allegations against him.
It is unclear when he will appear in court.
Over 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the January 6 riot. Around 440 people have been charged with felonies for assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
