Jose Luis Magana/AP
- A son alerted the FBI about his father weeks before he was a part of the pro-Trump mob who stormed the Capitol, The New York Times reported.
- Guy Reffitt was arrested on January 16 on charges of obstruction of justice and knowingly entering a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority.
- Reffitt allegedly threatened his son and daughter if they turned him in after telling them he stormed the Capitol.
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The 18-year-old son of a man charged in connection with the January 6 Capitol siege says he warned the Federal Bureau of Investigations about his father before the deadly riot, The New York Times reported.
Jackson Reffitt said he contacted the FBI weeks before the attack on the Capitol to let “someone to know” about his father Guy Reffitt’s threats of “doing something big.”
“He would always tell me that he’s going to do something big,” Reffitt told The Times. “I assumed he was going to do something big, and I didn’t know what.”
His father Guy Reffitt was arrested on January 16 on charges of obstruction of justice and of knowingly entering a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority for his involvement in the riot, according to an FBI arrest affidavit that Insider reviewed.
Trump supporters breached the US Capitol and clashed with law enforcement, halting a joint session of Congress as lawmakers were set to formalize President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election on January 6. The attack left five people dead.
So far 179 pro-Trump rioters have been arrested in connection to the riot.
Investigators found an AR-15 rifle and a pistol in the father's home, and he told them he had taken the pistol to the Capitol with him but had disassembled it to comply with Washington, DC, laws.
In the affidavit, the son told investigators that his father returned home on January 8 and said he stormed the Capitol but threatened his son and daughter if they turned him in.
"If you turn me in, you're a traitor and you know what happens to traitors ... traitors get shot," the father allegedly told his children, citing the affidavit.
His wife told investigators that he was a member of the Three Percenters, a far-right extremist group.
The son told The Times that he's not staying the family home at the time and did not disclose where he's staying over fears for his safety. His family only learned that he reported his father weeks before his arrest after he did a CNN interview.
The son also started a GoFundMe to help with his college fees, which has raised over $76,000 as of Sunday night.
Reffitt told the Times he has no regrets about alerting the FBI about his father.
"I put my emotions behind me to do what I thought was right," he said.