Federal prosecutors on Wednesday sought to keep in custody an armed man known as a QAnon conspiracy theorist who was arrested near President Barack Obama’s Washington D.C. house last week, saying he’s a delusional and ongoing danger who threatened other high-level officials including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Taylor Taranto, wanted in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack, was arrested June 29 after eluding a daylong police manhunt that began after he threatened to detonate explosives in his van while parked at a federal building in Gaithersburg, Md., the Justice Department said in a new July 5 filing.
“Taranto’s own words and actions demonstrate that he is a direct threat to multiple political figures as well as the public at large,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Allison Ethen and Colin Cloherty wrote in a 26-page detention memo. “The risk that Taranto poses if released is high, and the severity of the consequences that could result are catastrophic.”
Authorities had been on the lookout for Taranto before his arrest, but he was living in a van and was on the move. A subsequent search of the van turned up hundreds of rounds of nine-millimeter ammunition and two firearms, the prosecutors said. Previous news reports also said authorities found multiple weapons and materials that could be assembled to make an explosive device.
At an initial court appearance last Friday, Assistant Federal Public Defender Katie Guevara told a judge that Taranto was married and living in Washington state and had no criminal record, according to news reports. She said he traveled to D.C. in recent months to take McCarthy up on his public offer to make footage of Capitol security video available to those involved in the Jan. 6 uprising.
Guevara also said Taranto’s wife and her parents, based in Connecticut, could provide housing for Taranto while he awaited trial. U.S. Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey was expected to rule on the Justice Department’s motion during a hearing Wednesday afternoon.
According to prosecutors, Taranto posted widely about a variety of conspiracy theories on social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, Truth Social, Parler, and Telegram. Most of them focused on Jan. 6, they said, as well as “a belief that the 2020 election was fraudulent, and an endorsement of theories that ‘QAnon’ followers promote.” His posts, the detention memo said, also stated “in no uncertain terms that Taranto does not recognize governmental authority.”
Taranto’s behavior, described by prosecutors as erratic and dangerous, escalated around by June 28th, when he began live streaming on a publicly available YouTube channel that he was in Gaithersburg and headed to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST. He said he was on a “one way mission” to blow up his van there, and that the vehicle was self-driving so he would not have to be anywhere near it when it “went off,” the detention memo said.
The FBI, which had been monitoring Taranto’s online activities because of his participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, immediately began searching for him and alerted other law enforcement partners.
After an arrest warrant was issued June 29 for his alleged Jan. 6, crimes, Taranto began livestreaming again, prosecutors said, this time driving his van to the upscale residential where Obama and his family live, and then got out of the car and walked around.
“While walking, he made several concerning statements regarding the residences in the area, saying that he was looking for ‘entrance points,’ that he had ‘control’ of the block and ‘had them surrounded’ and that he was going to find a way to the ‘tunnels underneath their houses,’ prosecutors said. “He also repeatedly stated that he was trying to get a ‘shot’ and that he wanted to get a “good angle on a shot.”
Taranto was spotted by Secret Service within blocks of Obama’s house, and was apprehended as he was running toward it.
In their detention memo, prosecutors also suggested that former President Donald Trump was the one who tipped off Taranto to Obama’s home address.
On June 29, they said, Trump posted what he claimed was Obama’s address on his social media platform, Truth Social. Taranto used his own Truth Social account to re-post the address, the detention memo said, adding: “On Telegram, Taranto then stated, ‘We got these losers surrounded! See you in hell, Podesta’s and Obama’s.’ “
