The court issued a warrant for Kovacik’s arrest after he flew to Dublin through Germany on the day that he was supposed to report to prison in Chicago
Paul Kovacik (56) was arrested after he voluntarily returned to the US from Ireland last month.
He had been charged with defying a court order to surrender and serve three months behind bars for participating in the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol.
However, a court issued a warrant for Kovacik’s arrest after he flew to Dublin through Germany on the day that he was supposed to report to prison in Chicago.
Police body camera footage shows Paul Kovacik inside the Capitol, according to federal court documents. (Metropolitan Police Department)
He is currently back behind bars, serving his sentence at a federal prison in Chicago and is scheduled to be released on September 8.
But a conviction on the new misdemeanor charge could lead to more time behind bars, ABC News reports
According to prosecutors, Kovacik took videos of the rioting at the Capitol that he later uploaded his onto his YouTube channel, with titles such as ‘Treason Against the United States is about to be committed’.
Kovacik, whose criminal record included 24 prior convictions, was initially arrested by the FBI in June 2022.
A year later, Kovacik was sentenced by US District Judge Reggie Walton after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
Walton initially ordered Kovacik to report to prison on August 22, 2023, but agreed to extend that deadline to November 1, 2023, after Kovacik requested more time for his seasonal employment at a theme park in Georgia.
However the court issued a warrant for Kovacik’s arrest after he flew to Dublin through Germany on the day that he was supposed to report to prison in Chicago.
Kovacik referred to himself as a “political prisoner” when investigators questioned him following his arrest last month at an arrival gate at Minneapolis Saint Paul International Airport, according to the deputy’s affidavit.
Trump supporters try to break through a police barrier during the January 6 riots in 2021
Authorities found documents related to his asylum request in his luggage, which cited a fear of political persecution, the deputy wrote. The affidavit doesn’t say whether the Irish government acted on Kovacik’s request.
An attorney who represented Kovacik in his Capitol riot case declined to comment on the new charge.
More than 1,400 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the January attack. Several other Capitol riot defendants have become fugitives at different stages of their prosecutions.