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The FBI hasn’t arrested hundreds who joined the Capitol mob on Jan. 6. Just ask this MAGA comedian.
Online sleuths identified Kevin Downey Jr., a right-wing comedian who appeared on "America's Got Talent," to the FBI for his participation in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Politics
WASHINGTON — As the Jan. 6 committee prepares for a prime-time public hearing next week, the Justice Department is only a fraction of the way through one of the largest investigations in American history. The FBI has made about 850 arrests, and there are hundreds left to go.
One person closely watching the news of Jan. 6 arrests is a right-wing comedian recently identified to the FBI by the online sleuths who have played a critical role in identifying people in hundreds of Capitol attack cases. The FBI does not comment on ongoing investigations, and an official declined to do so in this case.
Kevin Downey Jr. was one of the highest-profile participants to have entered the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6; he appeared on “America’s Got Talent” on NBC in 2013 and was one of the men made over by the original Fab Five on Bravo’s “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” in 2004. He also released at least one DVD special, “I’m Not Gay, but Don’t Stop,” in 2008. More recently, Downey has taken a turn as a pro-Trump commentator, writing for the right-wing website PJ Media and describing himself on Twitter as Kevin “Ultra MAGA” Downey Jr.
Downey is a public figure who has written extensively about the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack. Three online sleuths confirmed to NBC News that Downey’s name has been submitted to the FBI, and the online network known as “Sedition Hunters,” which has published images of Jan. 6 participants, lists a photo of Downey as “identified.”
“Hopefully it will be the FBI, and not Downey, who gets the last laugh,” one online sleuth told NBC News.
Online sleuths say they identified Downey with the help of surveillance footage released in connection with another Jan. 6 case. After getting a facial recognition hit, confirming his identity was relatively easy, they said: Downey was traveling with a companion (his fiancee, according to his social media posts), and he also sent tweets both before and after the Jan. 6 attack, including one that told a Fox News personality to direct-message Downey if he wanted to “speak to someone that got inside the Capitol.”
NBC News also found photos that Downey posted of himself and his fiancee on Facebook on Jan. 6 that match the outfit the individual identified by the sleuths is seen wearing in the government surveillance footage inside the Capitol. That surveillance footage was released in connection with the trial of Dustin Thompson, a convicted Jan. 6 defendant who argued that Trump “authorized” the attack on the U.S. Capitol and that he was “following presidential orders.”
NBC News also found a YouTube interview in which Downey and his fiancee talked about their experiences at the Capitol, although they did not explicitly state that they entered the building.
Reached for comment Friday evening by NBC News, and informed that NBC News would be publishing this story, Downey hung up the phone.
“Oh,” he said, before hanging up. He did not respond to additional texts and voicemails seeking comment, nor did PJ Media.
Downey left an extensive online trail about his activities on Jan. 6, 2021. On Jan. 5, he replied to a Trump tweet, writing he was on his way to Trump’s rally.
“If you would like to speak to someone that got inside the Capitol please DM me,” he tweeted at Sean Hannity on Jan. 6.
(His companion, who is also a comedian, wrote that she “marched to the Capitol peacefully,” and that Trump didn’t incite violence, and sent another tweet saying she had “inside info regarding yesterday’s Capitol breech.”)