A former government employee was accused this week of sending false tips about former colleagues to the FBI tip line investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, according to court documents unsealed Friday.
Miguel Zapata was arrested Thursday in Chantilly, Virginia, for providing materially false statements to authorities, according to an arrest warrant.
Zapata submitted at least seven anonymous tips through the FBI’s reporting portal from February to April 2021 that accused former government co-workers of playing a role in the attack on the Capitol, according to an FBI affidavit. The statement does not identify Zapata’s government employment history.
The statement states that Zapata used a “web anonymizer” service and notes that the tips were worded similarly.
FBI records also indicated that the tips were traced to four IP addresses, and subscriber information from those IP addresses was assigned to a service provider account under the billing name “Mike Zapata,” according to the affidavit.
Records cited in the affidavit indicate that his account used the unidentified service to visit the FBI tip line, to conduct research on some of the people he submitted tips about, and to do a Google search for the term “FBI mole.”
Zapata’s false reports alleged that his colleagues, who were government employees and contractors, were involved in the Capitol riot and, in some cases, shared confidential information to aid the efforts of people and groups seeking to overthrow the government, says the document.
“None of the seven government employees and contractors were in Washington, D.C., on January 6 or attacked the Capitol,” the affidavit states, noting that each of the accused people was working in Virginia on January 6, 2021.
In a February 16, 2021 complaint, Zapata alleged that a colleague participated in the Capitol riot and played an active role in leading the riot “to hunt down politicians and execute them.” Zapata worked with this person from approximately 2017 to 2019, the affidavit says.
In another April 11, 2021 complaint, Zapata alleged that a former colleague “provided support to domestic terrorist groups such as the OathKeepers, Proud Boys, and Boogaloos” and shared confidential information with these groups to aid in their efforts to overthrow the government, according to the document.
An attorney listed for Zapata and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday evening.
More than 1,387 defendants have been charged in connection with the Capitol attack.
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