A Proud Boy found guilty of pepper-spraying officers during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot has disappeared before sentencing — sparking an FBI manhunt.
Christopher Worrell, 52, of Naples, Florida, was part of the crowd that stormed the Capitol as Congress ratified Joe Biden’s presidential victory on Jan. 6, 2021, and could face 14 years behind bars.
Friday’s sentencing was overturned and a warrant for his arrest was issued on Tuesday, according to court documents. FBI agents are now trying to track down Worrell.
Photos of Worrell taken on January 6, 2021 show him flashing the white power symbol multiple times.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Washington, DC, encouraged the public to share any information regarding his whereabouts.
Christopher Worrell, 52, was part of the crowd that stormed the Capitol as Congress ratified Joe Biden’s presidential victory on January 6, 2021, and could face 14 years behind bars. He is pictured, right, with an accomplice, with both men flashing the white power symbol
Worrell was found guilty of spraying pepper spray during the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6. He disappeared before he was sentenced – sparking an FBI manhunt. He is seen in side profile in the brown jacket holding his hand up.
Worrell had been under house arrest in Florida since his release from prison in Washington in November 2021, less than a month after a judge substantiated his civil rights complaints about his treatment in prison.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth found that D.C. prison officials had failed to adequately treat Worrell for his non-Hodgkin lymphoma and a broken hand that may have required surgery.
According to Associated Pressphone numbers listed for the 52-year-old and the woman named as his custodian while under house arrest were non-functional.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth found D.C. prison officials failed to give Worrell adequate treatment for his non-Hodgkin lymphoma and a broken hand that may have required surgery
More than three dozen people charged in the Capitol siege have been identified by federal authorities as leaders, members or associates of the Proud Boys, whose members describe it as a politically incorrect men’s club for “Western chauvinists.”
Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and three other members of the extremist group were convicted of seditious conspiracy in May.
In all, about 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riot.
More than 600 of them have pleaded guilty or have been convicted after trials decided by a jury or judge.
About 600 have been convicted, with more than half serving prison terms ranging from three days to 18 years.
Meanwhile, former US President Donald Trump was indicted on felony charges for working to reverse the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the violent uprising at the Capitol.
On Monday, Trump attacked the federal judge overseeing his Jan. 6 case, just days after she warned him not to make statements that could intimidate witnesses or compromise the “integrity” of the trial.
More than three dozen people charged with the Capitol siege have been identified by federal authorities as leaders, members or associates of the Proud Boys
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Washington, DC, encouraged the public to share any information regarding his whereabouts
Judge Amy Chutkan repeatedly warned Trump during a hearing last week with his lawyers in Washington, DC.
Trump went after her Monday morning — citing the judge as she handed down a 15-month prison sentence to a woman who violated the Senate chamber on Jan. 6.
Trump said the language came from “highly partisan judge Tanya Chutkan, who angrily sentenced a J-6er in October 2022. She clearly wants me behind bars.” VERY PRECISE & DISFAIR!’
Trump published an all caps quote from Chutkan when she condemned Christine Priola, a school occupational therapist who pleaded guilty to obstructing official proceedings — one of the charges Trump also faces. He posted it around 1 a.m. Monday.
“This was nothing but an attempt to overthrow the government… by people who were upset that their husbands had been lost,” Chutkan said.
“I see the videotapes. I see the images of the flags and the signs people carried and the hats they wore, and the clothes,” the judge said in October.
And the people who harassed that Capitol were there in allegiance, in allegiance to one man, not to the Constitution, of which most of the people who come before me seem woefully ignorant, not to the ideals of this county and not to the principles of democracy. It is blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.’
Former President Donald Trump, seen Sunday on day three of the LIV Golf Invitational at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, went after the federal judge overseeing his Jan. 6 case in Washington
Judge Chutkan admonished Christine Priola, who pleaded guilty to obstructing official proceedings after breaching the Senate chamber on Jan. 6, while handing down a 15-month prison sentence
The judge also said she believed Priola was “sincere” in her regret. Before her sentencing, she wrote to the court: “I don’t like it when people break the law or take the law into their own hands.
“I don’t want people to act like idiots. I was one of those idiots. I caused great harm to others and it created a ripple effect that I could never undo.”
Trump’s blast came despite warnings from the judge that focused more on comments that could sully the jury or intimidate witnesses. She went back and forth with Trump attorney John Lauro on Friday about language in her warrant about material that prosecutors must share.
Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a protective order on Friday requiring Trump to review the evidence in the case
She ultimately decided to only apply it to “sensitive information,” not all transcripts and materials he might receive. She also imposed conditions on how he can view it, requiring him to relinquish his mobile phone and not view documents while accessing a photocopier.
She also warned Trump’s lawyers that “incendiary statements” would result in a faster trial — something they would like to avoid.
Chutkan, a Barack Obama appointee, repeatedly warned Trump’s lawyers that he was making public statements. She said she understood he had First Amendment rights, but said at a criminal trial that his desire to respond to detractors “must give way.”
That came when Lauro brought forward former Vice President Mike Pence, a possible witness in the case, who has publicly attacked Trump amid Pence’s statements that he did not have the authority to return certified votes, as Trump claims. Both men are seeking the GOP presidential nomination.
Trump also ripped Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the case, after prosecutors obtained a warrant to access his Twitter account.
“How dare the accuser of the vile, deranged Jack Smith break into my former Twitter account without notifying me and even completely concealing this atrocity from me,” Trump wrote.
“What could he discover that is not yet known. Just like the early morning raid on Mar-a-Lago! Why doesn’t the DOJ raid Crooked Joe Biden, the most CORRUPT (and incompetent!) President in United States history?’