Military told FBI of Capitol riot suspect after Jan. 6 attack. He remained free for years

Gregory Yetman, who was arrested by the FBI after a search last week, had been reported to the bureau as a Capitol riot participant by the military shortly after Jan. 6 – yet continued to serve in the National Guard for more than a year, and was not charged until this month, court documents show.

But a New Jersey National Guard official told USA TODAY earlier this year that Yetman continued to serve in the guard for more than a year after that time. He was honorably discharged in March 2022.

The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command identified Yetman to the FBI on Jan.  14, 2021 — eight days after the insurrection, the documents state. Army investigators sent the bureau screenshots from Yetman’s Facebook profile in which he brags about being at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and states “I’m not fighting for this country anymore.” A few days later, FBI investigators interviewed Yetman for about 10 minutes, the documents state.

Indeed, just two months after the day the FBI says he picked up a canister of pepper spray and shot it at Capitol police officers on restricted Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, Yetman attended an annual National Guard training at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, Maj. Amelia Thatcher told USA TODAY in early 2023.

The New Jersey National Guard did not immediately respond to calls and messages Monday.

Gregory Yetman, Jan. 6 suspect, surrenders

Yetman turned himself in Friday after a two-day search involving FBI agents and local SWAT teams. He had escaped into woods near his home after agents attempted to serve him with an arrest warrant on Wednesday morning.

He is charged with multiple felonies including assaulting, resisting or impeding officers, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds and an act of physical violence in the Capital grounds. Yetman made an initial federal court appearance in Trenton, New Jersey, on Monday, and was ordered held without bail, the Associated Press reported. He is expected to enter a plea at a later hearing in Washington.

Yetman was identified in a USA TODAY investigation in March that examined the more than 100 Jan. 6 suspects who could be identified from the FBI’s “Wanted” photographs, but had not yet been charged.

Members of the online amateur investigators known collectively as the “Sedition Hunters” provided USA TODAY with names and information about many of those people, whose photographs on the FBI site matched their social media postings or other public information.

USA TODAY verified the identities of some of the suspects, and interviewed two, including Yetman.

Court documents filed this week show FBI agents came to the same conclusion: The photographs of the suspect known as #278 AFO match the identity of Gregory Yetman. Photos and videos show that man picking up a large tear gas canister and firing it towards a group of rioters and Capitol police officers.

Those photographs are included in the court documents filed this week, along with several more photographs taken from a police officer’s body camera footage. Newly released photos – taken from officers’ body cameras – make it even more clear that the man identified by the FBI as Yetman can be seen firing the tear gas canister in the direction of the police officers.

Interviewed by USA TODAY earlier this year, Yetman acknowledged he was at the Capitol on Jan. 6. But he claimed he did nothing wrong and denied pepper spraying anyone. He acknowledged being interviewed by FBI investigators, but said “Everything’s been resolved, everything’s good.” He did not respond to repeated phone calls and messages from USA TODAY before his arrest last week.

Efforts to stamp out military extremism has fizzled

As USA TODAY reported in July, the Capitol insurrection sparked an effort by U.S. Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin to examine the military’s extremism problem. That investigation found that two years after that effort was launched, it has been unable to demonstrate any results, and major parts of the initiative such as a special internal affairs unit were apparently never launched.

A report commissioned by Austin more than two years ago to investigate the scope of extremist activity within the military’s total force was completed in June 2022. The report has still not been made public.

Impact: After USA TODAY investigation, watchdog report says military failed to screen extremist recruits

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gregory Yetman in court; Army reported him in Capitol riot years ago