Former Government Employee Charged with Submitting Fake Tips to FBI Implicating Co-Workers in Capitol Riot
A former government employee, Miguel Eugenio Zapata, has been arrested and charged with repeatedly submitting fake tips to the FBI, falsely reporting that several of his co-workers in the intelligence community were part of the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Court records unsealed on Friday revealed the extent of Zapata’s deception.
Zapata, 37, was arrested in Chantilly, Virginia, on Thursday on a charge of making false statements to law enforcement. According to an FBI task force officer’s affidavit, Zapata submitted at least seven anonymous tips to the FBI’s website, claiming that seven government employees and contractors were involved in the Capitol riot.
The court records do not specify which government agency employed Zapata, but they do reveal that he had previously worked with all seven individuals named in his false tips to the FBI. None of the accused individuals were in Washington, D.C., on January 6 or participated in the attack on the Capitol.
The tips submitted by Zapata included similar language and were traced back to four IP addresses. Zapata used a company’s “web anonymizer” service to submit the tips, and the company’s logs showed his user account accessing various websites related to his false reports.
The FBI confirmed that all seven individuals named in Zapata’s tips were working in Virginia at the time of the Capitol riot. Zapata’s motive for making the false reports remains unclear.
Following the January 6 insurrection, the FBI received a significant number of tips from concerned citizens. More than 1,300 people have been charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol. An attorney for Zapata could not be reached for comment.