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Wednesday, February 17, 2021

UCLA Student Said to Be Involved in Jan. 6 Insurrection

UCLA student from Costa Mesa arrested, suspected of role in Capitol riot

By ERIC LICAS & JONAH VALDEZ | Orange County Register

PUBLISHED: February 16, 2021 at 8:19 p.m. | UPDATED: February 17, 2021 at 9:29 a.m.

Authorities identified one of the protesters who allegedly forced their way into the U.S. Capitol during a fatal riot on Jan. 6 as a UCLA student from Costa Mesa who founded a conservative campus organization; and arrested him Tuesday, Feb. 16.

Federal agents in Orange County took Christian Secor, 22, into custody after searching his Costa Mesa home Tuesday, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. He was charged on suspicion of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers; violent entry and remaining on restricted grounds, civil disorder and obstructing an official proceeding in a complaint filed later that day in federal court for the District of Columbia. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui ordered the defendant held without bail.

Footage and images recorded during the riot at the Capitol show Secor forcing his way past at least three police officers blocking a set of double doors leading into the building while wearing a red hat bearing the slogan “Make America Great Again,” authorities said in an affidavit supporting his arrest. He was also seen standing on the floor of the Senate and sitting in the chair of the congressional body’s Presiding Officer, while carrying a blue flag with the words America First in white writing.

Students at UCLA identified Secor as the founder of America First Bruins, a conservative campus organization, an FBI arrest affidavit said. Other tipsters provided photos of Secor participating at a political rally in Huntington Beach, and said he is a self-described fascist who has called for America to become a “whites-only” nation in social media posts, according the the complaint filed against him.

“Jews will not replace us!” and “nationalism everywhere,” he wrote from  his Twitter account, @fullautonat, in posts that were featured in an article dated April 1, 2020, according  to court documents. Secor is known to go by the alias “Scuffed Elliot Rodger.”

The FBI interviewed five informants, then conducted surveillance on Secor for three days beginning Jan. 25. He was taken into custody once investigators were able to match his description to the man seen in footage recorded during the Jan. 6 insurrection.

It was not immediately known if Secor is represented by an attorney who could comment on the allegations against him...

Full story at https://www.ocregister.com/2021/02/16/ucla-student-from-costa-mesa-arrested-suspected-of-role-in-capitol-riot/

UPDATE: Affidavit at https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20485485-1-1

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