Five members of one Texas family were arrested in connection with the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
Thomas “Tom” Munn, along with his partner Dawn Munn and their three children Kristi Munn, Joshua Munn and Kayli Munn, were arrested on Tuesday in what was one of the largest single day sweeps of defenders in a Capitol case, according to CNN.
Authorities were able to make the arrests after they received a tip from an individual identified as “a relative of Kristi Munn’s fiancé” and from extensive social media posts from other members of the family.
According to the criminal complaint, the tipster provided the FBI with screenshots from Kristi Munn’s Facebook and Snapchat accounts on Jan 9.
One screenshot from Facebook shows a photo of the family with the caption, “Washington D.C. here we come… #StopTheSteal #TrumpIsMyPresident.” Another screenshot from Facebook was a photo of Kristi Munn outside with protesters in the background.
Screenshots from Kristi Munn’s Snapchat account provided by the tipster showed crowds of pro-Trump rioters marching toward and climbing the steps of the Capitol.
Kristi Munn’s Facebook account was removed following the Capitol riot, but Facebook accounts belonging to other members of the family were found and reviewed. They revealed that each member of the family had travelled to DC on Jan. 6 and were inside the Capitol.
Prosecutors said in court documents that Tom Munn had shared several posts on Facebook urging people to go to D.C. on Jan. 6, including in a December 2020 post with an image of Donald Trump that included the text, “POTUS HAS REQUESTED YOUR ATTENDANCE WASHINGTON DC JANUARY 6TH 2021.”
On Jan. 6, Tom posted a group photo of the family posing among the crowd gathered at the Capitol building. One family member, who prosecutors said was a minor was also in the picture. The minor was not identified in court documents neither was he/she charged by federal authorities.
Another family member, Kelsi Munn — who the FBI doesn’t believe went to DC and was not charged with any crime — posted pictures of her family on Facebook in the riot calling it “female empowerment” because the Munn women “stormed OUR capital,” according to court records.
Prosecutors say the family appeared to have entered the Capitol building through a broken window on January 6. Authorities were able to identify the Munn family members in security footage from within the Capitol.
After the riot they reportedly discussed the day’s events on social media via direct messages. “Patriots began chanting ‘they are stealing our country’ and ‘press forward’ as they were carrying the wounded out through us,” Tom Munn wrote.
Dawn, Josh and Kayli Munn all told others they knew that they were inside the Capitol according their social media messages.
“We went in and stormed the capital (sic),” Dawn wrote in a Facebook message on Jan 6. “We were in the capital (sic) …..I do mean IN the building,” she wrote in another.
Also on Jan. 6 Josh Munn wrote in a Facebook message to an individual identified as ‘Joel,’: “Before you hear it on the news I and I (sic) family marched on DC today it was extremely cool we did enter the Capitol building..”
In a Facebook conversation on Jan. 6 with Kerri Munn, Kayli was asked “how’s the March?” “Fucking great!” she responded. “Holy shit we were inside the fucking capital(sic).”
Kristi Munn actually sent video on Facebook that she filmed from inside the Capitol looking through a window at police officers. She admitted in the message that she was using her child’s Facebook because she took so many videos on her phone that it ran out of space. Her child did not appear to have travelled to Washington D.C on January 6, according to court documents.
Each member of the family faces multiple charges including knowingly entering or remaining in restricted groups and disorderly conduct at the Capitol building.