Man Who Claimed To Be At US Capitol Riot Wanted To Bomb Data Center: FBI

Justice Department officials said Seth Aaron Pendley, 28, who's planned target was an Amazon Web Services building in Ashburn, Va., authorities said.

A Texas man who boasted about being on the U.S. Capitol steps during the Jan. 6 insurrection has been arrested by the FBI and accused of planning to detonate a bomb at a data center outside the District of Columbia in the hopes that doing so would cripple not just Internet traffic but also the FBI, CIA and other government agencies, officials said Friday. Justice Department officials said Seth Aaron Pendley, 28, was arrested Thursday after he allegedly attempted to take material from someone he thought was an illicit supplier of explosives, but who in fact was an FBI agent. Pendley's planned target was an Amazon Web Services building in Ashburn, Va., authorities said. According to a criminal complaint, Pendley came to the attention of authorities after someone alerted the FBI to ominous posts he had made on a website called MyMilitia.com. As the FBI investigated further, they found Pendley had claimed online to have been at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but said he did not enter the building, and shared video that seemed to indicate his presence outside the building, according to court papers. He told one associate online that he had kept a piece of broken glass from the Capitol, the papers said. The case highlights a growing concern among law enforcement and terrorism experts that the insurrection could inspire further domestic terrorist attacks, and officials praised the unidentified person who first alerted them to Pendley's online posts.