The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested a 32-year-old Haddonfield resident on Jan. 21 and charged him with disorderly conduct and illegal entry in the mass protest and destruction at the U.S. Capitol 15 days earlier.
In a criminal complaint issued by an unidentified FBI agent from federal court in the District of Columbia, Patrick A. Stedman was alleged to have been one of thousands who descended on the Capitol on Jan. 6, and one of hundreds who breached the building and caused members of Congress to either evacuate or shelter in place.
According to a tweet issued the same day by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, Stedman appeared in federal court in Camden on the afternoon of the 21st via videoconference and before Judge Karen Williams.
Per the report, the FBI was alerted to Stedman by a former high school classmate and a former college classmate who were both interviewed by the bureau on Jan. 19. Stedman, who touts himself on his Facebook account as “a men’s dating & relationship strategist,” apparently chronicled his participation in the event online, according to prosecutors.
An internet search revealed a personal site with a series of videos Stedman posted relating to recent election events and the Jan. 6 Capitol incident that can be found here: https://www.pscp.tv/Pat_Stedman/1YqKDEDPoowGV.
In a 40-plus-minute video titled “COVID/Cabal – Patriot’s Day” posted in the aftermath of the Capitol riot, Stedman revealed he was seated in the third row of the non-VIP section during then-President Donald Trump’s speech earlier in the day. Following the speech, he recalled a “cry” from the crowd whose aim was to relocate to the Capitol building and “take back the House, the ‘people’s House.’”
“The intention, as far as I could understand, was to put pressure on the House of Representatives,” Stedman continued.
He went on to assail the media, saying its coverage of the chaos and mayhem surrounding the breach of the Capitol by hundreds of protestors obscured the fact that “pretty much every single swing state … their legislatures have voted to decertify their electoral votes.”
In a clip posted to his Twitter account, Stedman later recalled how he and other rioters climbed up the back part of the Capitol window and got all the way into the chambers.
”I was pretty much in the first wave, and we broke down the doors and climbed up the back part of the Capitol building and got all the way into the chambers,” he said.
Stedman added in the aforementioned video that he “didn’t smash a single window, I didn’t even touch a door, frankly. I just walked in the hallways. I didn’t assault any police officer, I didn’t touch any police officers. I had some good conversations with a police officer. It was a police officer who advised me to get out of the building, which I did.”
Stedman was later released on $50,000 bail, with orders not to travel outside New Jersey and New York. He is expected to face another court hearing in the District of Columbia. According to multiple reports, that hearing is set for Jan. 27.
The full criminal complaint can be found here: https://www.justice.gov/file/1357721/download.
