Accused Capitol rioter had ‘Foxmania’ from too much Fox News, lawyer says
According to reports, Anthony Antonio shouted at Capitol police, saying: "You want war? We got war. 1776 all over again."
The attorney for a man who was arrested for participating in the January 6 insurrection in the U.S. Capitol Building has presented a unique, new defense: “Foxmania.”
“For the next approximate six months, Fox Television played constantly,” lawyer Joseph Hurley said of his client, Anthony Antonio. “He became hooked with what I call ‘Foxitus’ or ‘Foxmania’ and became interested in the political aspect and started believing what was being fed to him.”
The 27-year-old Antonio was identified as being inside the capitol “picking up a piece of furniture, which appeared to have a broken leg, with another individual and tossing the furniture off to the side,” documents note.
“Although his face was not visible, he was identifiable by the tattoo on his wrist and the distinctive black gloves with white writing,” the government alleged. Antonio confessed to the FBI that he entered the building through a broken window. He was wearing a tactical bulletproof vest and a patch with the logo of the Three Percenters, a far-right militia group.
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According to reports, Antonio shouted at police, including saying: “You want war? We got war. 1776 all over again.”
Another defendant, Landon Copeland, who was participating in the Zoom hearing in a D.C. federal court repeatedly interrupted Hurley with obscenities, objecting to the attorney disparaging former President Donald Trump. Copeland’s behavior was so disruptive, U.S. Magistrate Judge Robin M. Meriweather ordered a competency hearing for the 33-year-old man.
Trump has attempted to whitewash the events of that day, saying some of his supporters “went in, and they shouldn’t have done it.”
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He told Fox News: “Some of them went in, and they’re hugging and kissing the police and the guards. You know, they had great relationships. A lot of the people were waved in, and then they walked in and they walked out.”
In his remarks to a joint session of Congress, President Joe Biden called the January 6 attack “an existential crisis” for America. He said American adversaries “look at the images of the mob that assaulted this Capitol as proof that the sun is setting on American democracy. They are wrong. And we have to prove them wrong.”
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