A Santa Barbara–based “sedition hunter,” a member of an online group of amateur sleuths who help the FBI identify members of the pro-Trump mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, has collected video evidence of a North County elected official and her husband trespassing into the Capitol building during the riot.
The footage, which was forwarded in recent days to the FBI as well as the Santa Barbara Independent, first shows Karen Jones — a two-time candidate for county supervisor who currently serves as president of the Santa Ynez Valley Community Services District — and her husband, Robert, attending the rally at the Ellipse, where the former president encouraged his supporters to “fight like hell” to “take back our country.” The couple is then spotted at the front of the crowd near the base of the Capitol building’s East Steps shortly before it rushes forward, shoving and battering a line of police officers as it advances.
The clips come from security camera and body cam footage, as well as cell phone video posted on social media by individual rioters, which has been downloaded, archived, and made public by the online detective community, who are also referred to as “open-source intelligence investigators.” They’ve used publicly available facial recognition software to track thousands of individuals over the course of that day, labeling them with monikers like #FlagFaceBandit and #GasMaskTwins so others can pick up where they left off. Their work thus far has aided in hundreds of arrests. Karen and Robert Jones have been identified as #Insider1492 and #Insider0594, respectively.
