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An upstate New York man caught on video smoking marijuana inside a senator’s office during last week’s assault on the US Capitol says he has no regrets about any of it.
Brandon Fellows, 26, a former grocery store worker who lives in a converted bus, said he went to Washington, DC, on Jan. 6 for President Trump’s rally outside the White House — but then got caught up in the march on the Capitol, according to a Bloomberg News report.
“I’m not missing this,” Fellows recalled telling himself. “This is history.”
“I have no regrets,” he told Bloomberg. “I didn’t hurt anyone, I didn’t break anything. I did trespass though, I guess.”
Fellows said he decided to attend Trump’s rally following the president’s tweet that the event “will be wild!” when he announced the event.
He said he had never taken part in a march before but had soured on New York Democratic leaders over the state’s COVID-19 lockdown restrictions — and failure to come through with an unemployment check for him.
He said he arrived at the Ellipse, where the rally would take place, around 1 a.m. Wednesday and was one of the first Trump supporters on the line.
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“We were there for one common cause, which is making a statement that the government is crushing us down,” Fellows said, adding that it “felt like family.”
He wore snow pants, a leather jacket with an American flag on it, and a knit hat that looked like a bearded knight’s helmet, Bloomberg said.
“This is the last stand,” he told a reporter before the president spoke. “I feel like I’ve seen a lot of the election fraud evidence, and I don’t understand why nothing is being done.”
After the speech, Fellows said he joined the march down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol.
“I was like, ‘Oh cool, there’s gonna be a march,’” he said. “I’ve never been in a march.”
When he saw protesters bash their way into the building, he followed — posting dozens of Snapchat videos during his 30 minutes inside.
Before long, he found himself inside Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley’s office, which was trashed during the siege, smoking a joint someone handed him.
Fellows said he also quipped with cops, and said one “super cool” officer even showed him the National Statuary Hall in the Capitol.
“Did I think I was going to get in trouble?” Fellows said. “Uh, no.”
“Obviously Trump started a movement in a way, but I think we started something even bigger by doing this,” he said.
So far cops haven’t caught up with him, according to Bloomberg — but with federal and state law enforcement tracking down Capitol protesters from footage of the siege, he knows it’s possible.
“Do you think I’m going to federal prison?” he asked a reporter. “I was told federal prison is not fun.”
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