Alleged Capitol rioter admits 'Wow, you are pretty good' after getting busted by feds, authorities say



An Illinois man recently arrested for his alleged involvement in the storming of the U.S. Capitol last week admitted to federal agents, "Wow, you are pretty good" after they surprised him by producing incriminating evidence, court papers show.

What are the details?

Kevin James Lyons, 40, was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without authority and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds as part of the riots on Jan. 6, according to a criminal complaint filed this week.

Federal agents reportedly first became aware of Lyons' participation in the Capitol breach when they discovered a post on his Instagram account showing a route he planned to use to drive from Chicago to Washington, D.C. The caption for the post read, "I refuse to tell my children that I sat back and did nothing. I'm heading to DC to STOP THE STEAL! #MAGA #KAG."

According to an affidavit, agents then discovered a subsequent, since-deleted post on the Instagram account displaying a picture of a door sign outside the office of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.).

The sign said "Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi," and the picture was captioned, "WHOS HOUSE?!?!? OUR HOUSE!!"

When agents interviewed Lyons in Chicago on Jan. 8, he allegedly acknowledged he was in D.C. during the riot but was "evasive" about whether he had entered the Capitol.

He stated that he "100% guaranteed, without incriminating himself" that he saw nothing being damaged before explaining that in a dream, "He saw a lot of banging on doors, paper being throwing [sic] about, and a mob of people," adding that "people really didn't have much choice of where they were going because of the mob ... [and] if he were inside, he was inside for approximately 45 minutes."

Then, when Lyons was shown the photo placing him outside the speaker's office, he allegedly responded, "Wow, you are pretty good, that was up for only an hour."

Lyons allegedly acknowledged that the same photo was still on his phone's camera roll and showed agents his phone.

What else?

Lyons was released on a $10,000 recognizance bond Wednesday, local Chicago outlet WFLD-TV reported. Among the conditions of his release, U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel Fuentes ordered him to have no contact with anyone else involved in the Capitol breach or anyone planning further riots.

Lyons is just one of more than 30 individuals who have been charged so far as a result of the Capitol breach, according to Justice Department records.

Thousands of Colorado residents have no heat after 'intentional attack' on gas services



Thousands of residents in Aspen, Colorado, are without heat after what authorities say was an "intentional attack" on local gas service.

According to a Tuesday report from ABC News, the temperature in Aspen is expected to fall to just 2 degrees Tuesday night.

What are the details?

Authorities say that the attack — "coordinated acts of vandalism" — took place Saturday night and impacted at least three area Black Hills Energy locations.

The outlet reported, "At one of the targeted sites, police said they found the words 'Earth first' scrawled, and investigators were looking into whether the self-described 'radical environmental group' Earth First! was involved."

As work crews continued to restore gas service across the city, authorities began handing out electric-powered space heaters to residents without heat service on Tuesday as a storm is expected to roll in this week and dump an additional eight inches of snow on the region.

Work crews were forced to visit each gas meter on an individual basis, manually turn them off, and relight pilot lights in order to restore services. It wasn't just homes impacted by the attack — authorities said that businesses including area hotels and restaurants were forced to close their doors following the apparent sabotage.

In a statement, Aspen Assistant Police Chief Bill Linn said that the vandals appear to have had "some familiarity" with the natural gas line system.

"They tampered with the flow lines," he revealed. "They turned off gas lines."

Linn — who is also working with the FBI as it investigates the attack — added that physical evidence recovered at the three scenes included footprints. The three locations did not have security cameras, Linn said.

What else?

About 3,500 customers were impacted by the outage. It remains unclear how long it will take crews to restore service to all customers.

In a statement, Pitkin County Commissioner Patti Clapper added, "It's almost, to me, an act of terrorism. It's trying to destroy a mountain community at the height of the holiday season. This wasn't a national gas glitch. This was a purposeful act. Someone is looking to make a statement of some kind."