By NAN Staff Writer
News Americas, MIAMI, FL. Fri. Jan. 7, 2022: A man who attacked the US Capitol last year but now wants to travel to the Caribbean island of Jamaica, has had his request denied by a federal judge.
Chief Judge Beryl Howell on Thursday, January 6th, the one-year anniversary of the Capitol Riot, denied Anthony Williams’ request to travel to Jamaica from Michigan for 10 days.
Williams, who has pleaded not guilty to charges related to the January 6, 2021 riot, had asked to travel to meet his girlfriend’s family.
According to Williams’ request, “(h)e would stay in a home owned by his girlfriend’s father, and intends to spend time working with a local non-profit, St. Anthony’s Kitchen, in Negril, Jamaica.”
But Chief Judge Howell wrote: “Although such a meeting may be an important step in defendant’s personal relationship, (the) defendant surrendered his entitlement to unfettered international travel when, also ‘more than a year’ ago, on December 30, 2020, he allegedly announced his intent to ‘Storm the Swamp’…and one week later, on January 6, 2021, followed through by joining a mob at the Capitol that, in his words, ‘took [that] f***ing building.'”
Howell also noted that Williams allegedly said the day was “the proudest day of (his) life.”
“This Court will not commemorate the one-year anniversary of this attack on the Capitol by granting defendant’s request for non-essential foreign travel when he is awaiting judgment for his actions on that day,” Judge Howell concluded.
Defendants face travel restrictions while they await trial but it is not uncommon for defendants awaiting trial to seek permission to go on vacation.
Williams used Facebook to show off photos and videos of himself inside the U.S. Capitol, which gave law enforcement officials enough evidence to arrest him last March.
Williams was charged with obstruction of official proceedings, entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct. At the time, he was the sixth Michigan man arrested for their alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 riot.
Williams discussed plans to “storm the swamp” on Facebook weeks before he traveled to Washington, D.C., according to a federal criminal complaint, and later said it was the “proudest day of my life lol.”
