A suspect with an arrest warrant for the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol Building who was also carrying materials to make a bomb was arrested near the Washington, D.C., home of former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama.
According to CBS News, which quoted multiple sources, the suspect was identified as 37-year-old Taylor Taranto of Seattle, Wash.
According to a law enforcement official who was briefed on the matter, the Secret Service identified him within blocks of Obama’s residence. After he was spotted, Taranto attempted to flee, which led to a pursuit by the Secret Service. He ran in the direction of the Obama home but was apprehended before reaching it.
The report continued: “Taranto’s van was parked close to where he was arrested. There were multiple weapons and the materials to make some kind of explosive device akin to a Molotov cocktail, but it had not been assembled, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the details. He had said he had explosives, but first responders only found the materials to make them. U.S. officials were concerned because Taranto had made threats during recent live streams on social media against a public figure. He also had an open warrant on charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol. He wasn’t in Obama’s neighborhood by mistake, a U.S. official noted.”
As per a senior law enforcement official, Taranto had been present in the Washington, D.C., area for a few months. He had been observed camping out in his van near the D.C. jail, where numerous defendants from the January 6 incident are being detained. Additionally, some of his live streams were seemingly uploaded while he was in the vicinity of Washington, D.C., CBS News reported.
“Taranto has been charged with being a fugitive from justice, according to the Metropolitan Police Department,” CBS News reported, adding that it’s unclear if the Obamas were home at the time of the incident.
Meanwhile, the Biden family has been accused of engaging in a “kickback scheme” about his son Hunter Biden’s international business transactions, according to a former Obama administration employee who has come out with the claim.
Mike McCormick, who worked as a stenographer in the White House for 15 years, claimed that the FBI has ignored him even though he is prepared to provide a sworn statement to the federal grand jury looking into the activities of Joe Biden’s son.
“In February, I went to the FBI and filed one of their tips on their website. If you do that, and you’re lying to them, you go to jail. I’m not lying. I’m telling the truth, and I’m not going to jail,” he said. “Joe Biden is a criminal. He was conducting malfeasance in office to enrich his family. Jake Sullivan is a conspirator in that, and there’s more… Obama officials involved in it, I believe.”
“McCormick, who worked with Biden from 2011 to 2017, detailed a key dialogue involving the vice president, aide Jake Sullivan and the press on Air Force Two before a trip to Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 21, 2014. Sullivan, who is the current national security adviser, outlined in a White House transcript Biden’s priorities for his trip to the country, which included U.S. investment in the Ukrainian energy sector days after Hunter joined the board of Burisma Months later, and well after the trip, Congress allocated $50 million to Ukraine’s energy market,” the outlet reported.
“I’m sitting back there with a tape recorder. Jake Sullivan comes back and somebody asks about fracking. His answer is, well, we’re bringing a lot of American assistance over for fracking. Burisma was the direct beneficiary of that fracking, and that’s what I recorded, and that’s in a White House transcript,” the former stenographer said.
“In the transcript, you don’t know who Jake Sullivan is. It’s a senior administration official. I’m the witness that says Jake Sullivan is the guy who said it and he should be investigated because at the time Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma and Joe Biden is bringing American taxpayer money to enrich that company and himself and his family,” he added.
