A Bucks County, Pennsylvania, man was indicted Wednesday, August 25, 2021, for crimes related to attempted coup d’état on Jan. 6, in which a violent mob breached the U.S. Capitol and disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress that was in the process of counting the electoral votes related to the presidential election.
Ryan Samsel, 37, of Levittown, was indicted for federal offenses that include assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds; carrying out an act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds; and obstruction of an official proceeding.
Samsel has remained in custody since his arrest on Jan. 30, when the FBI identified him as one of the insurrectionists at the Capitol pushing and pulling on barricades.
When Samsel and others succeeded in knocking over one of the barricades, the FBI said, a police officer hit her head on the stairs behind her. The officer was later taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a concussion.
According to court documents, Samsel was captured in publicly available video taken of a crowd pushing and pulling on barricades on the west side of the Capitol.
In another confrontation, according to court documents, Samsel attempted to pull a riot shield from a uniformed U.S. Capitol Police officer.
The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, which identified Samsel as #51 in its seeking information photos, with significant assistance provided by the U.S. Capitol Police and the Bucks Montco Safe Streets Task Force of the Fort Washington resident agency of the Philadelphia Field Office.
In the seven months since Jan. 6, more than 570 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including over 170 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains ongoing.
Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.
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