Michael Carico (images via FBI court filings)
The Florida actor accused of yelling “Hey Nancy, go fuck yourself” after climbing a media tower outside the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6 has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.
Michael Carico, 33, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building. He faces up to six months in prison and up to a $5,000 fine.
According to prosecutors, Carico’s own videos and pictures show that he was part of the mob of Donald Trump supporters that overran the Capitol on Jan. 6 in an effort to stop the counting of Electoral College votes and certification of Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election.
At one point during the plea hearing Tuesday, Carico balked at having to come to Washington for his sentencing.
“I just assumed that everything was going to be through Zoom since I’m so far away and I’m not allowed to go up there unless it’s for this particular case,” Carico, who lives in Florida, said to U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly.
“I’ve been trying to do all my sentencing in person because I think the nature of sentencing is such that it’s important, if at all possible, for everyone to be in the same room as the person I’m sentencing, especially if the person decides to address me,” Kelly, a Trump appointee, told Carico.
“For someone who is not incarcerated and doesn’t have to deal with [quarantining], I’ve been typically doing them in person,” Kelly said.
The complaint against Carico details his actions both inside and outside the Capitol. He is seen from multiple angles climbing a media tower located near the inauguration stage on the west side of the Capitol building.
According to prosecutors, Carico himself posted pictures of his progress as he made his way to the top of the tower. Once there, Carico allegedly sang the closing lines to the national anthem, and then “looks directly at the camera and says, “Hey Nancy, go fuck yourself.”
“Based on the proximity to the U.S. Capitol and the congressional proceedings occurring that day, I understand ‘Nancy’ to be a reference to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi,” the investigator wrote in the Statement of Facts.
A paid confidential informant told federal investigators that Carico had been “telling others on the U.S. Capitol Grounds that Carico had just been inside the U.S. Capitol.” Investigators found pictures on Carico’s Instagram account that appear to confirm this.
Surveillance video footage also showed Carico inside the Rotunda, and another video “submitted to the FBI that was taken by another person present in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on January 6, 2021” confirmed this, according to prosecutors.
Investigators identified Carico as wearing a green jacket and a backwards baseball cap with the word “NAVY” on it. Carico had also posted a picture of himself wearing a camouflage shirt with an American flag patch sewn to it. Prosecutors determined that Carico “did not serve in the United States Navy or any other branch of the U.S. military.”
Carico is an actor who has appeared in several movie and TV series, including two movies in 2021, according to his IMDB page.
Carico had also been charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, and disorderly and disruptive conduct. Kelly set Carico’s sentencing for March 11, 2022.
Read the complaint against Carico, below.
[Images via FBI.]
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
