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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – One of the South Florida men arrested in connection with the Capitol attack is talking about his reasons for going to Washington, D.C.
“I went on the 6th to D.C. to protest against communism and prostitution,” Felipe Marquez said.
The Coral Springs resident admitted to CBS4 News he was in D.C. the day hundreds attacked the Capitol.
“How did you learn about going to D.C.?” asked CBS4’s Ty Russell.
“Just through the president,” Marquez answered.
Marquez was arrested Tuesday morning by the FBI. His arrest affidavit states someone tipped agents off about Marquez’s social media app Snapchat. Then investigators found video proof he drove in his Tesla to D.C. and stormed the Capitol. Marquez doesn’t see it that way.
“This is like a Rosa Parks, like Martin Luther King moment for me. As long as I’m peaceful and I can say, ‘Hey, let’s all come together,’ I think that’s the most important thing,” he said.
FBI agents also arrested former U.S. Army Captain and Miami Resident Gabriel Garcia.
His criminal complaint states Facebook handed over videos that were uploaded by Garcia. Agents say in them he admitted to storming the Capitol and saying it’s going to get ugly.
Documents show he also called Capitol police traitors, and he kept asking about the location of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Agents said he also called for the release of a Miami Proud Boys leader, who was arrested days before the riot.
“In many cases, in both of these, they’re using their own words to help charge them and ultimately potentially convict them,” criminal defense attorney David Weinstein with Hinshaw and Culbertson said.
Weinstein is a former federal and state prosecutor. He believes, even without the social media video, prosecutors may already have enough on one serious charge.
“The easy thing for the prosecution to do in all of these cases, even without the videos. It is a crime in of itself to make an impermissible, uninvited entry into the Capitol buildings. That’s the way the law was written. That’s the way our country was set up. Those are sacred and hallow grounds of our democracy,” the attorney told CBS4 News.
Despite being inside the Capitol, Marquez says he shouldn’t be charged.
“As long as you weren’t being violent, and you went destroying anything, I think you did something good. For the people who were violent, you did something very bad,” Marquez said.
Since it’s just hours away from the start of the Biden administration, Marquez still doesn’t immediately accept the outcome of the election.
“I don’t know. Until whatever happens. I don’t know,” he said.
The charges range anywhere from six months to 10 years in federal prison.
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