‘I’m Invincible’: Alleged Jan. 6 Rioter Thought He Got Away With It…Until His Buddy Turned Him In
Photo courtesy of Department of Justice.
“I’m invincible.” That’s what Landon Bryce Mitchell messaged a friend on Facebook who was concerned he might be arrested for his alleged actions during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Mitchell reassured his friend he was “not too worried” because he was “masked up the whole time.” Turns out, the FBI knows a thing or two about tracking people down, and another one of Mitchell’s own friends ratted him out, and that friend was ratted out by a friend of his.
Mitchell was arrested on Wednesday by the FBI. The criminal complaint describes Mitchell’s activities on Jan. 6 — documented in detail by not just journalists’ cameras, but by Mitchell’s own social media posts.
While he was inside the Capitol complex he was indeed wearing a mask, but other photos like the one above (Mitchell is on the right) showed his face and the FBI easily spotted him dozens of times in various photos and videos from that day, such as the example below from the Senate Chamber.
Photo courtesy of Department of Justice.
Mitchell was with a friend and former co-worker on Jan. 6, a man by the name of Luke Wessley Bender.
A high school classmate of Bender’s tipped off the FBI about his involvement in the riot, and he was arrested in July. After his arrest, he identified Mitchell and provided detailed information about their activities that day.
The FBI obtained warrants for Mitchell’s iCloud accounts, Facebook messages, cell phone records, and other social media accounts.
“Absolutely Proud of my fellow Americans who made their voices heard at the Capitol,” wrote Mitchell in a Facebook post dated Jan. 7.
Mitchell bragged about his involvement in the riot in a series of Facebook messages with another friend (name is redacted in the criminal complaint) on Jan. 17. When the friend asked if he’d been arrested, Mitchell replied, “Ha! Nah I’m invincible.”
“Seriously tho I’m not too worried,” Mitchell continued. “I was masked up the whole time…thank God for giving me the foresight to keep my mask up.” He also bragged about being in a photograph published in The New Yorker, “just the back of my head tho lol.”
