During an Instagram Live on Tuesday night, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that she had a "very close encounter" on January 6, the day of the violent riots at the U.S. Capitol, and that she thought she was "was going to die,” BuzzFeed News reports.
Ocasio-Cortez did not provide detail about the incident that occurred on January 6, explaining that she was not sure if she was able to "disclose the full details" due to the security implications.
However, recalling the "traumatizing" encounter, Ocasio-Cortez revealed that “I did not know if I was going to make it to the end of that day alive.”
Watch as Alexdria Ocasio-Cortez calls Trump a "clear and present danger" in office:Per BuzzFeed News, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was not in the Capitol on Tuesday night as the House voted to ask Vice President Mike Pence to remove Donald Trump from the presidency.
She said that during the storming of the Capitol she was concerned about other members of Congress knowing her location and did not feel safe going to the same secure location as colleagues who believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory, as well as "frankly, white supremacist members of Congress ... who I know and who I have felt would disclose my location."
Ocasio-Cortez added that she felt that there were colleagues who would “who would create opportunities to allow me to be hurt, kidnapped, etc.” She said that she “didn’t feel safe around other members of Congress.”
She praised the individual work of Capitol Police officers, but also referenced "acts of betrayal."
"To run in the Capitol and not know if an officer is there to help you or to harm you is also quite traumatizing," she said.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for the Trump supporter pictured carrying a lectern out of the Capitol Building has told news reporters: "I'm not a magician" with regards to his client's case.
Adam Johnson, who hails from Parrish in Florida, was featured in a number of photos of the Capitol riot last week, after he joined a mob of pro-Trump protestors who interrupted the ceremonial counting of the Electoral College votes on Wednesday, January 6.
Johnson widely photographed picking up and carrying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern off amid the chaos.
Per The New York Post, he was released on Monday, January 11, on a $25,000 bond, and met with news reporters gathered outside the courthouse in Tampa.
Defense lawyer Dan Eckhart told the assembled reporters:
"You have a photograph of our client in a building, unauthorized to be there, with what appears to be a podium or a lectern. I'm not exactly sure which one it is called, but that's what we have.
When a news reporter opined that the significant amount of footage of Johnson in the Capitol building while bearing the lectern looked detrimental to Eckhart's client's case, Eckhart responded:
"Yes, I don't know how else to explain that. But yeah, that would be a problem. I'm not a magician.
"So yeah, we've got a photograph of our client in what appears to be inside a federal building or inside the Capitol with government property."