First he threatened to blow up his truck outside a government facility, then he drove with a small arsenal to former President Barack Obama’s home. The FBI arrested 37-year-old Taylor Taranto in Washington, a US citizen considered close to QAnon conspiracy circles and among Donald Trump supporters who stormed Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021. The US D.C. Attorney General considers the man a “serious and direct threat to the public.” It is for this reason that he requests that Taranto remain in prison pending trial. The FBI alert was triggered after a June 28 live broadcast in which the 37-year-old threatened to blow up his truck against a nuclear research reactor in Gaithersburg, 25 kilometers north of Washington, DC. But federal agents managed to track him down the next day, after another neighborhood photo shoot on social media in former President Barack Obama’s neighborhood, during which Taranto made it clear he was looking for a good photo angle. A small arsenal was found in his truck: two handguns, 400 bullets, explosives, and a machete.
From the first investigations it becomes clear that among his targets there were not only Obama, but also Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Speaker of the House, and Jimmy Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland. Tarentum, he explains CBS NewsWanted by police for his participation in the 2021 Capitol Hill attack and facing trial on at least four counts. Prosecutors explained that the man had been living on his truck for the past two months and would have lurked several times outside the Washington, D.C., prison where some of those responsible for the 2021 Capitol attack are being held. A few weeks ago, Taranto allegedly also broke into — along with other people — an elementary school in Takoma Park, Maryland, where he attempted to prepare a video presentation of a documentary about the events of January 6.
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