A man who wore a shirt with the words “Camp Auschwitz” splashed across the front at the Capitol riot last week was arrested Wednesday in Virginia.
Robert Keith Packer, 56, was taken into custody by U.S. marshals just before 9 a.m. in Newport News, Va., records from the Western Tidewater Regional Jail in Suffolk, Virginia show.
He was charged in federal arrest warrants issued by the FBI with “violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds” and “knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building/grounds without lawful authority.”
Packer had been conspicuous in photos of Trump supporters rioting at the Capitol on January 6 because of his black sweatshirt bearing the reference to the Nazi concentration camp in Poland where more than a million people were killed during World War II. The sweatshirt also had a picture of a skull and the Nazi phrase “Work Brings Freedom,” a rough translation of the German “Arbeit macht frei,” which was on the death camp’s gates. The language and imagery drew shock and outrage from observers, and Packer was identified by people who knew him to several news outlets.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department filed the first two federal grand jury indictments against defendants connected to the deadly riot, including a man who was arrested near the Capitol with eleven Molotov cocktails, several firearms, and papers with the names of lawmakers in his possession.
The violence on January 6 resulted in five dead, including a Capitol Police officer. Since then, more than 70 people have been criminally charged in connection with the riot and hundreds are likely to be charged eventually, the top federal prosecutor in Washington said.
Meanwhile, the House will vote on impeaching President Trump a second time on Wednesday after House Democrats filed an article of impeachment against him on Monday, charging him with “incitement of insurrection” over the Capitol riot.