Center: Matthew Valentin, circled in yellow, and Andrew Valentin circled in red. Clockwise from top right: Enlarged image depicting Matthew Valentin grabbing a police officer through a metal barrier; Matthew Valentin’s hand, circled in yellow, can be seen grabbing a police officer’s baton; body-worn police camera footage allegedly shows Matthew Valentin pepper spraying officers; Matthew and Andrew Valentin climbing the media tower on Capitol grounds (all images via Department of Justice court records.)
Arrested just before Valentine’s Day, two brothers from Pennsylvania, Matthew and Andrew Valentin, have been hit with a variety of criminal felony and misdemeanor charges in Washington, D.C., alleging that the brothers’ marauding at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 featured their grabbing at officers and their batons, throwing a folding chair at them and spraying them with chemical irritants.
Andrew Valentin, 26, and Matthew Valentin, 31, from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, were arrested on Feb. 11 and Feb. 12, respectively, according to a statement from the Justice Department released Tuesday.
Both of the men were charged with entering and remaining in a restricted area, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, acts of physical violence in the Capitol or grounds, assaulting, resisting or impeding officers, and civil disorder.
Using open-source video footage and after interviewing associates of the brothers, including at least one former co-worker of Andrew Valentin’s, according to a statement of facts reviewed by Law&Crime, the FBI said agents were able to positively identify the men.
Prosecutors say the Valentin brothers gathered near the Washington Monument with other Donald Trump supporters before heading toward the West Plaza of the Capitol. They can be seen scrambling up the media tower as other rioters overcame police and swarmed the tower and nearby scaffolding, the indictment shows.
Within roughly 15 minutes, the brothers allegedly moved from the restricted area at the top of the media tower to the West Plaza, where they rushed a police line as rioters around them chanted “push push push.”
Footage appears to show the Valentin brothers pushing through a bike rack being used as a barrier as police try to fend off the mob, with Andrew Valentin’s “Make America Great Again” hat slipping from his head in the fray. A moment later, police body worn camera footage appears to show Matthew Valentin muscling the bike rack barrier forward into an officer before he “grabbed” them.
Department of Justice exhibit allegedly shows Matthew Valentin, circled in yellow, pushing through a bike rack barrier as police defend the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“After the crowd rushed the line, police fell back and formed a new protective line on the south side of the West Plaza. As members of the mob continued to advance on and assault police, Andrew Valentin took out a cell phone and appears to have recorded the scene,” the statement of facts notes.
Left: Department of Justice photo exhibit showing Matthew Valentin spraying a chemical irritant at police on Jan. 6, 2021. Right: Brothers Matthew and Andrew Valentin, circled in yellow and red, appear in footage breaching police barricades.
A few minutes after this, prosecutors say the men doubled down, again rushing the line of officers. As they approach, footage from multiple angles allegedly shows Matthew Valentin holding a baton in one hand and a spray canister in the other before unleashing a wash of orange mist.
Police body worn camera footage shows Andrew Valentin, circled in red, and Matthew Valentin, circled in yellow, near a line of officers near the Capitol’s West Plaza; Matthew Valentina holds a spray canister in one hand and a baton in the other. Courtesy Department of Justice.
The brothers eventually moved to a different area close to the west side of the Capitol near a tunnel. They recorded more video for a few moments and then bounded up the steps to the Upper West Terrace, squeezing among rioters and police attempting to keep them at bay. Once they reached the upper terrace, prosecutors say Matthew Valentin had managed to strap a camera to his forehead to record his crimes.
They had not yet been at the Capitol for a full hour.
Charging documents allege the brothers screamed at police as they moved through the grounds, and in a photo provided by prosecutors from around 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 6, they say Matthew Valentin can clearly be seen stretching his body over a mass of fellow rioters as he reaches out to grab a police baton.
By roughly 5:15 p.m., the brothers were back at the west plaza and that’s where Andrew Valentin allegedly found a folding chair and chucked it at a line of police, ultimately striking the shield of a police officer from Montgomery County, Maryland, who had been called into the capital for back up as Capitol Police struggled to hold the building.
Department of Justice trial exhibits depict Andrew Valentin, circled in red, throwing a folding chair, circled in green, at police officers at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
An attorney for the brothers could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday and it is unclear when they are due in court next. Though charged in the District of Columbia, Matthew Valentin was arrested in Wilkes-Barre where he made his initial appearance at a court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, the Justice Department noted. Andrew Valentin was arrested in South Whitehall, Pennsylvania, and made his initial appearance at a federal courthouse within the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
