Two days after the Jan.6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol, the FBI received a report of a man posting on the social media app Talk advocating political violence.
“This individual has been talking about overthrowing the government for weeks in public chat rooms pushing disinformation and talking about repeatedly hanging and executing people… He claims to have been on Capitol Hill on January 6 and has posted several disturbing videos that would seem to back up that statement, ”the tip reads in part.
Two days later, two separate informants also informed the FBI about the same Talk account and expressed concerns about its contents. Talking is popular in right-wing political circles.
One of the informants said he met the account owner, whom he identified as Michael Oliveras of New Jersey, at a Donald Trump “Stop the Steal” rally in Philadelphia on November 7, 2020. “I first met him when he was inciting violence against counter-demonstrators,” part of the advice read.
Last month, the FBI indicted Oliveras, 38, of Lindenwold, with four felonies accusing him of disorderly and disruptive conduct after illegally entering the Capitol during the January 6 riot.
A New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness detective, working on an FBI task force, arrested Oliveras on December 9 in Marlton, Evesham Township, court records show.
Investigators discovered that Oliveras was indeed at the Capitol on January 6 and used his cell phone to record and then post several videos inside the Capitol. He also broadcast it live during the attack, a detective wrote in the criminal complaint against him.
In one, as rioters push inside, a narrating man, said to be Oliveras, says, “Here we go. Here is the next rush. There is a push inside, with resistance. In another, the man the FBI says is Oliveras exclaims, “Where are the fucking traitors?” Slide them through the f —— hair! “
And while filming a pile of damaged media material, in a pile the man says, “This is what happens when the f —— fake news pops up at a Patriot rally.”
In August, two people who know Oliveras, including one who had a “very personal relationship” with him for more than 20 years, identified him to the FBI in photos taken inside the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Oliveras was released on bail following an initial appearance in federal court in Camden. No lawyer is listed for him in the court records. His case will be transferred to federal court in Washington, DC, where all suspects of the Capitol riots are heard.
Nearly 30 people from New Jersey or with close ties to Garden State have been charged with crimes related to the Jan.6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
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Kevin Shea can be reached at [email protected].
