A 23-year-old Costa Mesa man who allegedly sat in Vice President Mike Pence’s seat while storming the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 Insurrection has admitted to helping to disrupt a joint session of Congress.
Christian Alexander Secor pleaded guilty to a felony count of obstructing an official proceeding during a hearing on Thursday in a Washington D.C. courtroom, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.
Secor, a Costa Mesa resident who founded a conservative organization at UCLA, was initially charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers, civil disorder and other charges that were dismissed as part of his plea deal.
Prosecutors in court documents allege that Secor texted someone the day of the 2020 election saying “We’re going to win bigly and if we don’t we’re taking this ship down in flames.”
The day before the Capitol riot, Secor sent a message to another person saying he “Wouldn’t be surprised if conservatives just storm the police and clobber antifa and the police but that’s wishful thinking.”
On Jan. 6, 2021, thousands of pro-Trump supporters flooded the U.S. Capitol in what eventually turned into a violent but ultimately failed attempt to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
Federal prosecutors allege that Secor, carrying a large blue flag, was among the group that marched to the Capitol, and was part of a mob of rioters that entered restricted Capitol grounds.
Secor climbed scaffolding to reach the Upper West Terrace of the Capitol building before entering through the Senate Wing Door and making his way through the Crypt and into the House side of the building, prosecutors allege.
He walked through the office suite of the Speaker of the House, prosecutors allege, then went to the Senate chamber and sat in a seat that had been occupied by Then-Vice-President Mike Pence 30 minutes earlier. After leaving the building, Secor reportedly boasted on Twitter, “One day accomplished more for conservatism than the last 30 years.”
See also: List: These Southern California residents are accused of taking part in the Capitol riot
Tipsters provided federal investigators with photos of Secor taking part in a Huntington Beach political rally. A self-described fascist, Secor has allegedly called for America to become a “Whites-only” nation in social media posts.
After his arrest, the Bruin Republicans’ issued a statement indicating that Secor had been expelled from their organization for inappropriate behavior prior to the events of Jan. 6.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Secor faces up to 20 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 7.
More than 800 people nationwide have been arrested in connection to the Jan. 6 Insurrection, including more than two-dozen with ties to Southern California. So far, more than 275 defendants have pleaded guilty to federal charges, the bulk of whom have admitted to misdemeanor counts that amount to trespassing in the Capitol building or the adjacent restricted grounds.
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