Georgia couple charged for participating in U.S. Capitol riots

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Georgia couple is the latest to be charged for their involvement in the riots at the U.S. Capitol last January.

According to federal court documents, phone records show that phone numbers associated with Charles Hand, III and Mandy Robinson-Hand were inside and around the U.S. Capitol at the time of the riots.

Before entering the Capitol, Hand was captured on surveillance camera breaking off a piece of metal fencing and placing it in his back pocket.

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Hand and Robinson-Hand were later seen on surveillance camera entering the Capitol through a doorway at the Senate Wing. Robinson-Hand was holding up a cell phone in her hand as they entered.

Prosecutors say the married couple walked into the Crypt and then down a stairway into the Capitol Visitors Center. They eventually made their way toward Emancipation Hall.

At one point, several people got into an altercation with law enforcement. Hand can be seen on video advancing towards them, but Robinson-Hand holds him back.

The couple then went back upstairs. It’s unclear when they left the building.

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After the riots, Hand posted on his Facebook page that he was “an eye witness of the storming of the United States Capitol on 1-6-2021.″

He continued on in a lengthy post to say that he was “on the scene from 1:30pm to 4:00pm” and that he “saw makeshift fencing that had been torn down,” a crowd of people “rushing the Capitol Police,” and that “tear gas, rubber bullets, mace and etc wasn’t stopping them...Thousands upon thousands of angry Americans marching onto the Capitol to protest and stop the certification of what I personally believe to be an election stolen from the American people.”

Prosecutors also add that Robinson-Hand made several since-deleted Facebook posts that read in part: “We’re in the capital. Taking our house back...We’ve been tear gassed etc.”

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The couple is being charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building and uttering loud, threatening or abusive language or engaging in disorderly conduct in any of the Capitol Buildings.

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