The DEA agent was arrested on January 6 in rioting at the Capitol by Trump supporters

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Police purge the US Capitol with tear gas as supporters of US President Donald Trump gather outside, in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.

Stephanie Keith | Reuters

A US Drug Enforcement Administration agent has been arrested for allegedly participating in the January 6 rioting at the US Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

The agent, Mark Sami Ibrahim, allegedly flashed his badge and a DEA-issued handgun during the riots while taking photos with these items. Pictures of him doing so are included in the court filing.

Authorities said he entered the restricted area around the Capitol and also climbed the Peace Memorial at the foot of Capitol Hill.

The court filing said he participated in a “group chat via WhatsApp with at least five other law enforcement officers” during the Capitol invasion.

This file also notes that after Ashley Babbitt, a Trump supporter, was shot and killed by a police officer inside the Capitol while crawling through a window leading into the House Chamber, she was escorted outside on a stretcher and passed “within steps from Abraham.”

The note said that a friend of Ibrahim who was standing with him filmed Babbitt on video tape as she was “transported in front of them” in an ambulance.

Images provided in the Justice Department fact sheet appear in court filing by Mark Sami Ibrahim at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Source: DOJ

And the court file stated: “Ibrahim then posted this video in a group chat on WhatsApp.”

Abraham, who lives in Orange County, California, was a probation employee of the Drug Enforcement Administration at the time of the riots, which began after Trump urged attendees at a rally outside the White House to march to the Capitol and fight congressional confirmation. Joe Biden was elected president that day.

He had given notice of his planned resignation several weeks before a mob of Trump supporters invaded the Capitol, according to a court filing.

“He was not on the DEA’s duty and had no role as a law enforcement officer on the Capitol,” the application said. That document also stated that Ibrahim was on personal leave from the DEA when he traveled to Washington, D.C.

One of Ibrahim’s friends told FBI agents that he went to the protest to “promote himself,” while he was considering launching a podcast and cigar brand, the file says.

Images from a Department of Justice fact statement showing a clip from the image above showing Ibrahim’s DEA badge and his firearm at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Source: DOJ

Cell phone data shows that Abraham arrived at the Capitol at about 1:06 p.m. on January 6 — about 13 minutes after a mob began smashing the fencing that fortified the floor — and three minutes later he “taken several flash photos and displayed his DEA badge and firearm “.

“These photos were taken by Ibrahim’s friend at Ibrahim’s request,” the court document read.

A video posted online at about 1:45 p.m. that day shows Ibrahim holding a flagpole with a flag on it with a blue five-pointed star and the words “Freedom or Death,” the court filing said. At the time, Abraham was 400 feet inside the first set of fences that barricaded the Capitol.

Images provided in the Justice Department fact sheet appear in court filing by Mark Sami Ibrahim at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Source: DOJ

At around 2:10 pm, Ibrahim took a video of himself, which he later posted on the WhatsApp group chat [with other law enforcement officers], standing in the crowd on a patch of grass above the United States Capitol Visitor Center between the East Portico of the Capitol and the Senate.”

“Question mark, you carry your duty weapon and badge/papers?” A WhatsApp group chat member asked Abraham, pointing to his DEA credentials, note the deposit. “I want to know this sign.”

Ibrahim later became the subject of an investigation by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General and the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

As part of this investigation, he was interrogated by an agent in the Office of the Inspector General, in the presence of his attorney, via video link on March 15, according to a court filing.

After being advised not to lie to the agent, which would be a federal crime, Ibrahim admitted to being at the Capitol on January 6 and admitted that he had a DEA badge and credentials, as well as his personal weapon that his agency had issued.

“Ibrahim denied that he displayed or disclosed his DEA badge and firearm on the Capitol,” the memo said. Specifically, Ibrahim said, ‘I have my credit I had a firearm and my badge. . . But she was not exposed. . . This is not what I do know about.”

“During his interview, Ibrahim acknowledged hearing tear gas canisters exploding, and said he heard the explosion,” the note said.

Abraham also told the agent of the Office of the Inspector General that he went to the Capitol that day with a friend and relative, at the friend’s request, according to the filing.

Ibrahim alleged that his friend “asked the FBI to document the event, and that he went with his friend to help with the effort,” according to the court document.

The friend later told the FBI agent that “Ibrahim penned this story… in an attempt to ‘cover up…’ and that the friend had not received any direction from the FBI to document the riots.”

“According to Ibrahim’s friend, Ibrahim went to the rally in order to promote himself,” the note said. Ibrahim was considering his next step after his DEA exit and wanted the protests to be his stage for launching his podcast and cigar brand ‘Liberty Tavern’.

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