Veteran arrested close to Obama's home indicted on federal charges

By 
 July 18, 2023

A U.S. Navy veteran and Capitol riot suspect who was found with multiple guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in his van when he was arrested near former President Barack Obama's home June 29 was indicted Friday on federal firearms charges and remanded to jail until his trial.

37-year-old Taylor Taranto was already facing misdemeanor charges for January 6 when he allegedly participated in the breach of the Capitol. The new indictment was for carrying a firearm without a license and unlawfully possessing a large-capacity ammunition feeding device.

He was arrested in Obama's neighborhood the same day former President Donald Trump posted what he said was Obama's home address on social media.

He later reposted screenshots of Trump's message and said he had the Obamas and Podestas "surrounded."

He was "joking"

Taranto was livestreaming on YouTube about finding his way to Obama's home through an underground tunnel and trying to get a shot on (presumably) Obama just before his arrest.

His lawyer suggested that his comments about finding a shot referred to the video he was making, not to any firearms-related shooting. She also said his comments about "tunnels" were a joke referring to conspiracy theories about the area.

Taranto's wife said he came to Washington, D.C. because House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said he was going to reveal more unseen video footage of the Capitol breach, according to the Associated Press.

He was arrested the day after he said on YouTube that he was in Gaithersburg, Maryland on a "one-way mission" and suggested he planned to blow up his van at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Investigators said Taranto appeared to be living in the van where he was found.

The FBI had been monitoring him since his involvement in the Capitol breach, and picked up on the YouTube broadcasts.

Taranto's background

He was under treatment for mental health issues related to his military service and deployment in Iraq, where he saw combat, according to his service record.

He got a Combat Action Ribbon and an Iraq Campaign Medal and was honorably discharged, his lawyer said.

According to the lawyer, Taranto was driving a combat vehicle in Iraq when his convoy was hit with enemy missiles.

Thankfully, whatever mentally broken process led him to the Obamas' neighborhood was interrupted when police found him and prevented any violence from occurring.

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