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Clockwise left to right: Accused Jan. 6 rioter Kayla Reifschneider uses an obscene gesture outside of the Capitol in 2021. Prosecutors say the top left image shows her destroying press equipment and bottom right screaming at them before spitting at them.
Kayla Reifschneider, 27, was so fired up in support of Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, that federal prosecutors say the Los Angeles, California, woman smashed apart press cameras, spit at reporters as she told them to “Get Covid!” and yelled obscenities as she stormed the Capitol. She was arrested Wednesday.
According to an arrest warrant, authorities picked Reifschneider up in Los Angeles and charged her with obstruction of justice/Congress, knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and an act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or building.
A statement of facts from the FBI detailing the allegations against Reifschneider describes how her anger and frustration grew steadily since as early as October 2020 when she joined a group on Telegram known as “PATRIOTS45 MAGA Gang.”
The organizers of that group were not identified in court records but prosecutors allege that a “consensual screen capture” on someone else’s phone that agents captured in April 2021 confirmed the network’s purpose: it was meant to organize Trump supporters who thought the election had been stolen.
Reifschneider allegedly joined in December, two days before Trump posed his “will be wild” message on Twitter urging his supporters to read Peter Navarro’s report on so-called election fraud and come to Washington, D.C., for his rally on Jan. 6.
“We need a lot of people,” Reifschnedier is alleged to have said in a text as members of the group sorted out who was going to the nation’s Capitol and how. When someone suggested they would be flying with weapons, or “things not great on airplanes,” the Reifschneider said he would need a knife.
As the days ticked down to Jan. 6, court records note how the Los Angeles woman was paying a close eye to news articles about Trump’s failed attempts to relitigate his loss in the courts. By Christmas, prosecutors said she asked someone who might be driving to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 if they could help her get a stun gun. She would have it by the New Year, as well as three canisters of pepper spray and a knife.
Four days before the attack on the Capitol, prosecutors say she posted an image of her weapons online. Referring to the anti-fascist ideological movement “antifa,” Reifschneider captioned the image of her wares with a message that read: “Tell Aunt Queefa not to f with me. I will use whatever I have to protect myself and others.”
Justice Department photo exhibits allegedly depict messages affirming Reifschneider’s presence in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021; middle photo shows her boasting of her stun gun and pepper spray collection, far right she is holding a stun gun.
In smaller font, she wrote: “I won’t be looking for problems but if any situations occurs I will defend myself.”
She also allegedly reposted a screenshot from Twitter to the “Patriots45 MAGA Gang” group chat that read:
If you’re in D.C. on January 6th, STAY HOME! The domestic terrorists (Boogaloos, Prod Boys, etc.) are planning to break into federal buildings, cause violence against law enforcement, burn down buildings, and even try to shoot up federal employees and lawmakers. STAY HOME!!!!!!!!”
“What a loser,” she added.
When someone else suggested “real Trump supporters” were looking to “arrest traitors like Nancy [Peosi] and Mitch [McConnell] and [Joe] Biden etc. not attack buildings lol,” Reifschneider agreed.
“Exactly. We aren’t antifa and [Black Lives Matter]. We have an actual mission,” she allegedly responded.
Once she was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, prosecutors say open source footage showed Reifschneider going about that mission and it included yelling obscenities at police and members of the media while she joined rioters in the mob.
She is accused of climbing over a wall separating rioters from members of the press at one point, and as journalists were forced to flee, their equipment was destroyed.
She was allegedly heard cheering: “Get rid of b—-. That’s right, we’re throwing your f—ing s—.”
A statement from the Justice Department recounts her alleged tirades of “mother f—! F— you! That’s spit, b—’! Get f— COVID!! before she is seen lifting, and then throwing a helmet. Moments later, Reifschneider is seen walking up to a camera on the ground and stepping on it with her foot.
The footage shows her picking the camera up and throwing it back down to the ground as the woman whined: “It shows my f— anger” as well as “F— you!”
In another video, she is seen waving her middle finger, celebrating and screaming.
“F— you! It’s been four years I’ve been waiting to do this,” Reifschneider said.
Left: Justice Department photo exhibits depicting the destruction of media equipment that Reifschneider posted on Instagram with the caption “Bye bye media stuff.” Right/ Reifschneider is pictured allegedly cheering as another rioter screams obscenities’ about Nancy Pelosi, according to court records.
As the rioting was in full swing, the group chat was awash in activity and Reifschneider was often quick to reply as users discussed whether then-Vice President Mike Pence would “reject Trump’s call to overturn Biden election,” court records show.
Once Pence issued a letter on Jan. 6 saying, in effect, that under the law his role was purely ministerial during the certification of the votes, prosecutors say Reifschneider became enraged.
“We need to give them hell,” she allegedly wrote in the chat.
When someone told her, “apparently they are trying to storm the Capitol” at 2:04 p.m., Reifschneider allegedly said people had “tried” but it “didn’t work out.”
When someone told her no, people were “literally in the Capitol building” [sic] she allegedly replied: “Oh ya they are at the steps. But not in.”
Around 4:48 p.m. when the Patriots45 MAGA Gang chat was asking whether it was antifa who had stormed the Capitol “to control the narative,” Reifschneider was confident it was not.
“I can tell u that isn’t antifa,” she allegedly wrote.
Text messages reviewed by police also allegedly show Reifschneider admitted that she would not comply with a curfew that was imposed on Jan. 6 in Washington, D.C. The next day on Jan. 7, she had a laugh with a friend about the beatings she saw outnumbered police take as they tried to repel the mob.
“I definitely saw one geting help. Limping. We f—– them up worse than antifa and blm. Lmao,” she allegedly wrote, using online shorthand for “laughing my ass off.”
She wouldn’t leave the chat until Jan. 19, 2021, a day before now-President Joe Biden’s inauguration. FBI agents would interview her in March and during that sit-down, they say she admitted to coming to Washington, D.C., and going to Trump’s speech at the Ellipse. She would also tell the agents that she had climbed onto the scaffolding and watched a “scrimmage line” between police and rioters before she left.
Reifschneider also allegedly told the FBI she had a “confrontation” with members of the media but said it was she who had been pushed. When people saw this alleged confrontation against her, she told the FBI that people started to jump over metal barricades and go after press equipment. Reifschneider told the agents she had hurt her foot and it was “probably messed up for a month” when she also kicked equipment.
When asked if it was more like a “soccer kick” or a stomp,” the woman said it was a “soccer kick, I think.”
It is unclear if Reifschneider has retained an attorney; one is not yet listed on the docket.
