Federal authorities have arrested a Florida couple who had previously been featured in news coverage of the QAnon conspiracy movement in connection with the Capitol riot.
The couple ― 48-year-old Jamie Buteau and 44-year-old Jennifer Buteau ― were arrested in Florida on Thursday morning and will make their first court appearance this afternoon. Jamie Buteau faces more serious charges over pictures uncovered by federal investigators that show him throwing a chair at Capitol Police officers during the attack on Jan. 6.
He faces charges of obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder; assaulting, resisting or impeding officers; and engaging in physical violence on Capitol grounds. Both Jamie and Jennifer Buteau face charges of disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building; parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building; and other misdemeanors.
The couple, according to federal authorities, entered the Capitol through a broken window. They spent roughly 20 minutes inside.
The Buteaus were featured in “Q: Into The Storm,” a documentary which aired on HBO earlier this year. They were previously interviewed by Vice News after they attended a rally for then-President Donald Trump in 2018. Jamie Buteau was holding a “Q” sign, and believed that Trump sent a signal to QAnon by pointing to him.
“[Trump] validates it by doing those little things, letting us know that, you know, he hears us,” Jamie Buteau said on the Vice News special.
Jamie Buteau was listed as FBI suspect no. 188 on the FBI’s website. But, in an indication that facial recognition may have been involved in his case, the image federal authorities posted to publicize their search for him was from the 2018 Trump rally. It was taken by a photographer for The Tampa Bay Times. While Jamie Buteau isn’t named in the photo caption, he is featured in the accompanying Times story, meaning that the FBI could’ve identified him through open source research.
Instead, according to a FBI affidavit, a member of the public tipped the FBI off to the Vice News video. Three tipsters also told the FBI that Jennifer Buteau entered the Capitol. On Facebook, she claimed that “Antifa was infiltrating Trump supporters for the cameras.”