Proud Boy Leader Nicholas Ochs, Who Was Seen Smiling And Smoking During Capitol Siege Has Been Arrested

Nicholas Ochs, one of the leaders of the far-right Proud Boys group, who was photographed casually smoking a cigarette while marching the halls of Congress during the riots, has been arrested.

According to the NY Post, FBI agents grabbed the 34-year-old “Proud Boy” member at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu on Thursday as he was arriving home from D.C., the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a statement.

Prosecutors have charged Ochs with misdemeanor unlawful entry of restricted buildings or grounds and credited his own social media with providing the necessary evidence of his participation in the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol.

“Hello from the Capital[sic] lol,” he tweeted Wednesday afternoon, captioning a selfie shot of him and another person with lit cigarettes in their mouths.

Ochs later claimed that the was inside the Capitol Building, but as a “professional journalist” in an interview with CNN.

“We didn’t have to break in, I just walked in and filmed,” he said, according to the complaint filed. “There were thousands of people in there — they had no control of the situation. I didn’t get stopped or questioned,” Ochs explained.

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