A man waving a Confederate flag and others watch rioters storm the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. (Robert H. Reid/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — An active-duty Marine who entered the Capitol with two of his colleagues from the Quantico Marine Corps Base on Jan. 6, 2021, and then spent more than 50 minutes wandering through the building, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor count of illegally parading or demonstrating in the Capitol. All three Marines work in intelligence gathering, including one at the National Security Agency headquarters in Maryland.
Cpl. Micah R. Coomer, 24, is allegedly the fourth active-duty Marine from Quantico to breach the Capitol on Jan. 6, and the first active-duty military member to plead guilty in the riot. A fifth active-duty service member, Navy sailor David Elizalde, was arrested last month in Arlington and accused of driving to the Capitol from his post on the USS Harry S. Truman, which was docked in Norfolk on the day of the riot. More than 1,000 people have been charged with participating in the attack on the Capitol.
Soon after Jan. 6, federal investigators were alerted to Coomer's Instagram account, where he posted photos from inside the Capitol during the riot and wrote that he was, "Glad to be apart [sic] of history." Later in January 2021, according to an FBI affidavit seeking his arrest, Coomer wrote in a conversation with another Instagram user that "everything in this country is corrupt. We honestly need a fresh restart. I'm waiting for the boogaloo."
When the other user asked him, "What's a boogaloo," Coomer responded, "Civil war 2."
Coomer and two other men, Sgt. Joshua Abate and Sgt. Dodge Dale Hellonen, were assigned to the Marine Corps Information Operations Center in Quantico, according to reporting by the Intercept after their arrest. All three were arrested in January of this year, and it was not clear why the case wasn't filed for two years.
Before their arrests, all three were transferred to intelligence-related posts around the country, with Abate assigned to the Marine Cryptologic Support Battalion in the NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, and Hellonen working as a special communications signals analyst at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Coomer remains on active duty as an intelligence surveillance reconnaissance system engineer at Camp Pendleton, Marine Corps officials said Wednesday. He enlisted in September 2018, the Marines said.
Abate and Hellonen's cases are pending, as are cases against Elizalde and Marine Maj. Christopher Warnagiris, who is charged with assaulting police and obstructing the congressional certification of the electoral vote.
In June of last year, according to the FBI affidavit filed by Special Agent Kelsey Randall, Abate was interviewed as part of his security clearance and discussed entering the Capitol with his "buddies." Abate told interviewers he and his friends "walked around and tried not to get hit with tear gas." Abate also reported that he perceived the Jan. 6 riot was being "portrayed negatively" and decided he should not tell anybody about going into the U.S. Capitol.
According to Randall's affidavit, the three Marines placed a "MAGA" hat, which Coomer had been wearing, on a statue in the Rotunda and took photos of it, then walked around taking more pictures for 52 minutes. None of the men were charged with any violent conduct or other felonies. Other Marine Corps members corroborated the identities of the men for FBI investigators, Randall's affidavit said.
Coomer, originally from Muncie, Ind., told U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes that he was currently stationed at Camp Pendleton near San Diego but otherwise said little during his brief hearing. He declined to comment outside the courtroom after his plea. Reyes, who was appointed to the bench in February, set his sentencing for Aug. 30.
"I'm sorry to meet you under these circumstances," the judge told Coomer. "I'm hopeful that this is a small obstacle in your life." After explaining that the probation department would be producing a pre-sentencing report on the case for her, Reyes said, "Hopefully if I get back a clean report . . . we'll get out of here quickly on the 30th."
