CT mayoral candidate free on bond after being accused of entering U.S. Capitol during Jan. 6 riot
A candidate for mayor of Derby was free on a no cash bond Wednesday after being charged with misdemeanor offenses for entering the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the day it was stormed by mobs of supporters of former President Donald J. Trump.
Gene DiGiovanni publicly acknowledged his presence at the Capitol a year and a half ago after amateur, online detectives identified him from the thousands of hours of video footage taken of the thousands of rioters disputing and protesting Trump’s election loss two months earlier.
The online investigators tipped off the NBC news affiliate in West Hartford, which confronted DiGiovanni at a meeting of the Derby Board of Alderman, according to an FBI affidavit, DiGiovanni’s lawyer and others.
“At the conclusion of a public meeting, the reporter confronted DiGiovanni on camera with photographs of DiGiovanni inside of the US. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021,” the affidavit says. “In response, DiGiovanni responded in part by saying, ‘I was there, I went inside there, and, you know, I didn’t damage or break anything. Obviously you got the pictures to prove it.’”
DiGiovanni, who owns a construction company, is accused of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
He was charged Tuesday after federal prosecutors allowed him to turn himself in at the federal courthouse in New Haven. He was released on his own recognizance.
DiGiovanni could not be reached Wednesday, but his lawyer, Martin Minnella said there is a video recording showing that DiGiovanni entered the Capitol after a Capitol police office held a door open for him.
At the time of the riot, DiGiovanni did not hold a public office. But when he was confronted a year later, he had been elected as an alderman in Derby and is now running for mayor as a Republican.
The FBI affidavit filed in connection with DiGiovanni’s arrest asserts that the bureau began an investigation after being alerted by the television report.
“Following NBC Connecticut’s identification of DiGiovanni as an individual believed to have entered the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, the FBI identified additional video and images appearing to show DiGiovanni inside the Capitol Building,” the affidavit says. “Both open source photographs and videos and Capitol Building close circuit television (“CCTV”) footage depict DiGiovanni on the Capitol Building grounds and entering the Capitol Building itself.”
Further investigation showed that DiGiovanni’s cell phone was inside the Capitol during the riot and additional video recordings show him “circumventing permanent and temporary security barriers manned by U.S. Capitol Police and unlawfully entering the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.”
During a voluntary FBI interview in January, DiGiovanni admitted entering the Capitol, according to the affidavit. He said he traveled to Washington by himself to listen to Trump’s final official speech and while at the Capitol he was wearing a red, white and blue sweatshirt bearing the name of his company, DiGiovanni and Sons Construction.
The FBI was able to determine that DiGiovanni entered the Capital through the Upper West Terrace door at 2:20 p.m. and walked through the Rotunda and Statuary Hall before leaving through the east Rotunda doors at 2:45 p.m.