A lawyer for the Trump supporter pictured carrying a lectern out of the Capitol Building has told news reporters: "I'm not a magician".
Thirty-six-year-old 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.
Take a look at this news report on Johnson in the video below:Johnson was seen picking up and carrying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern amid the chaos.
The violent protest ultimately left a total of five people dead and forced politicians and journalists to flee Congress after the mob clashed with riot police.
According to Florida CBS-TV affiliate WTSP, Johnson was arrested on Friday, January 8, and charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and with the theft of government property.
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.
Johnson remained silent, while his lawyers addressed the press on his behalf.
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."
Meanwhile, Johnson's other attorney David Bigney stated that his client and his family have been receiving death threats over the last few days. Bigney added:
"What he'd like to do is just get home to his family. He'd like some privacy and to spend some quality time with them."
Per ABC News, Johnson is due back in court in Washington, D.C., on 19 January - the day before President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.
Jacob Chansley, the horned Capitol protestor "QAnon Shaman" who was also featured in a number of pictures taken at the scene, has also been arrested and charged after turning himself into the FBI.
According to a statement from the federal attorney for Washington, D.C.: "Jacob Anthony Chansley, a.k.a. Jake Angeli, of Arizona, was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
"Chansley was taken into custody today. It is alleged that Chansley was identified as the man seen in media coverage who entered the Capitol building dressed in horns, a bearskin headdress, red, white and blue face paint, shirtless, and tan pants.
"This individual carried a spear, approximately 6 feet in length, with an American flag tied just below the blade."
Chansley is currently being held in a quarantine section of a detention facility in his native city of Phoenix, Arizona. But the 33-year-old appears to be unrepentant regarding his role in the civil disturbance.
Indeed, in a later interview with BBC News correspondent Sophie Long regarding his part in the riots, he claimed that his fellow protestors were "patriots doing what our founding fathers would have done."
