A security officer who had worked as a contractor for the State Department was arrested on federal charges on Tuesday in connection with his participation in the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the authorities said.
The employee, Kevin Michael Alstrup, was arrested in Washington on charges of entering and remaining in a restricted building; disorderly and disruptive conduct; and picketing or parading in the Capitol building, according to an arrest warrant that was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Mr. Alstrup’s work status with the State Department was unclear as of Tuesday.
In statement regarding his arrest, a spokesperson for the department said “the individual was a third-party contractor providing uniformed officer services for the State Department.”
There was no lawyer listed for Mr. Alstrup in court documents.
According to a 15-page affidavit filed in federal court, a device associated with an email address for Mr. Alstrup showed that he was on the grounds of the Capitol or within the building itself during the afternoon of Jan. 6. The address and social media accounts led to his public records, including his driver’s license in the District of Columbia.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it had found that Mr. Alstrup “was employed” by the State Department as a diplomatic security officer. As part of that work, an F.B.I. agent wrote, Mr. Alstrup was “familiar with providing security and protection for high-ranking government officials or sensitive locations, like embassies.”
The F.B.I. also found posts that Mr. Alstrup had made on social media placing him outside the Capitol building that day.
Mr. Alstrup’s supervisor identified him in photos taken inside the Capitol, where, according to the affidavit, Mr. Alstrup spent about 28 minutes, including in the Crypt at the center of the building, before leaving through the Senate Wing’s doors.
While inside, Mr. Alstrup stood before a broken window and took photos of other rioters as they entered and left the building, court documents said.
After he left the Capitol, body-camera footage from a Metropolitan Police Department officer picked up Mr. Alstrup as well, the affidavit said.
Mr. Alstrup isn’t the only person with links to the State Department who has been arrested in the breach of the Capitol.
In November, a former U.S. Marine who served in the Trump administration as a low-level State Department aide was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for his role in the attack on the Capitol.
More than 1,265 people have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the Jan. 6 breach. They include more than 440 people who have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, a felony, federal prosecutors said.
