SYRACUSE, NY Michael Bartusek of Fairport, New York, pled guilty today to wire fraud, money laundering, and filing a false tax return.
The announcement was made by Acting United States Attorney Antoinette T. Bacon of the Northern District of New York; United States Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr. of the Western District of New York; Jonathan D. Larsen, Special Agent in Charge, New York Field Office, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI); Thomas Relford, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); and Inspector in Charge Joseph Cronin, Boston Division, United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).
ASSOCIATED PRESS – Security was tightened around the New York state Capitol on Thursday and law enforcement officials around the state were focusing on potential threats, even as they continued to track down people involved in last week’s mob attack on the U.S. Congress.
State Street is blocked off for more hardened security at the New York state Capitol, Monday, Jan. 11, 2021, in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Penninkl)
The FBI warned several days ago that armed protests by violent Trump supporters were being planned in all 50 state capitals in the days leading up to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Kruly said Harding knowingly tried to disrupt the certification of the Electoral College vote that finalized President-elect Joseph Biden’s victory. The Cheektowaga resident’s follow-up social media posts, he said, “expressed a desire to engage in similar conduct in the future.”
“If we can take the Capitol building there is nothing we can’t accomplish,” the prosecutor quoted Harding as saying in a video.
Harding was granted release with conditions that include monitoring of his location and internet activity.
“Mr. Harding believes that the evidence … will bear out that his intention of being there was to protest peacefully and that his actions were peaceful in nature and not violent while in there,” his attorney, Jason DiPasquale, said in unsuccessfully opposing monitoring.
Associated Press ALBANY (AP) Security was tightened around the New York state Capitol on Thursday and law enforcement officials around the state were focusing on potential threats even as they continued to track down people involved in last week’s mob attack on the U.S. Congress. The FBI warned several days ago that armed protests by violent Trump supporters were being planned in all 50 state capitals in the days leading up to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. On Thursday, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s office in Albany, Thomas Relford, said the bureau was unaware of a specific threat on the state Capitol building.