A Capitol rioter who received phone call from the White House on Jan. 6 was identified as a 26-year-old Trump-loving New Yorker who joked about shooting Nancy Pelosi
The Capitol rioter who received a perplexing nine-second phone call from inside the White House on the afternoon of January 6, 2021, has been identified by CNN.
Anton Lunyk, 26, had already left the Capitol premises that day when his phone rang at 4:34 p.m., according to records reviewed by the outlet. The call came from the White House's publicly available phone number just minutes after former President Donald Trump posted a video encouraging his supporters to "go home," telling them, "we love you, you're very special," CNN reported.
The revelation of Lunyk's identity as the mysterious call recipient comes after a former technical advisor to the the House Select Committee investigating the insurrection said Friday that he traced a call between a rioter and the White House switchboard during the attack.
"You get a real 'a-ha' moment when you see that the White House switchboard had connected to a rioter's phone while it's happening," Denver Riggleman, a former Republican Congressman , whose unauthorized "behind-the-scenes" book on the probe is set to be published later this week, told 60 Minutes. "That's a big, pretty big 'a-ha' moment."
Members of the January 6 House select Committee have since downplayed Riggleman's role with the panel — as well as the importance of the phone call — suggesting that Riggleman is "overstating" the incident.
An anonymous source told CNN that the committee is still investigating the nature of the phone call, but has thus far been unable to uncover who made it — or why.
What has been made clear this week, however, is who received the call: Anton Lunyk — who claims he doesn't remember getting the ring and says he doesn't know anyone who worked in the Trump White House, according to CNN's sources.
Lunyk, of Brooklyn, New York, was initially charged with five counts related to his role in the riot, including violent entry, disorderly and disruptive conduct, and entering or remaining in a restricted building. But in April, he pleaded guilty to just one count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building and was sentenced to 12 months of probation, 60 hours of community service, and a restitution fine in September.
Prosecutors said Lunyk traveled to Washington, DC, the evening before the riot with two of his friends, Francis Connor and Antonio Ferrigno. The three men first attended the "Stop the Steal" rally before joining the mob of Trump supporters in walking to the US Capitol, where the crowd laid siege to the building.
Photos of Lunyk inside the Capitol show him wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat, and videos from the scene captured Lunyk and his friends laughing and recording on their cellphones while in the building, according to court documents.
A sentencing memorandum revealed that Lunyk and his friends made violent jokes about Democratic lawmakers in the days after the November 2020 election, alleging that the presidency had been "stolen."
"If they take my money I'm gonna shoot Pelosi," Lunyk said in a message to Connor, Ferrigno, and others on January 12, 2021.
The trio spent approximately 10 minutes inside the Capitol before exiting through a window, prosecutors said. They had been out of the building for nearly an hour and a half when Lunyk's phone rang, according to CNN, and photographic evidence suggests the friends were already on their way back to New York when the call came through.
There is no mention of the phone call in any court records related to Lunyk's case, and an attorney for him did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
