A New York man who stormed the US Capitol in January has been arrested after boasting about the incident to a potential match on the dating app Bumble.
On Thursday, the FBI arrested Robert Chapman for his role in the siege, citing posts he made on Facebook and a conversation he had with a user on Bumble, according to NBC New York.
An FBI court filing says Chapman allegedly told the match on Bumble, “I did storm the capitol. I made it all the way into the Sanctuary Hall,” before adding he was also interviewed by The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.
In response, the Bumble user wrote: “We are not a match.” The unnamed user then notified US law enforcement and provided a screenshot of the Bumble conversation with Chapman as evidence. Ultimately, Chapman made it easy for federal investigators to charge him due to his own social media activity. In filing the arrest warrant, the FBI claims Chapman used a Facebook account to post photos of himself while inside the building.
“I’M FUCKIN INSIDE THE CRAPITOL,” he allegedly wrote on the Facebook account. The FBI also cites body camera footage taken from police that appears to show him inside the US Capitol Building. Chapman now faces charges for breaking into a restricted federal building and knowingly trying to disrupt government business.
For months now, federal investigators have been arresting other Capitol rioters by pointing to the pictures, videos, and posts on social media they made as evidence. More controversially, law enforcement has also been using facial-recognition technology to identify suspects they believe stormed the US Capitol building.
In the weeks after the attack, dating apps banned users who posted photos from the Capitol riot on their profiles, the Washington Post reports. Some women, meanwhile, changed their profile information to trick men into admitting they were in D.C. on Jan. 6 and then turn those conversations over to the FBI.
