‘Boy That Escalated Quickly’: Jan. 6 Rioter’s Google Searches Come Back to Haunt Him
In the run-up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, rioter Matthew Lawrence Stickney allegedly made a series of suspicious—and amusing—Google searches, including “can i carry a knife on a plane,” “how do i take my gun with me on a flight,” and “weed legal in d.c.”
This month, those searches came back to haunt him, turning up in an arrest warrant filed against Stickney, who’s been charged with disorderly and disruptive conduct inside the Capitol building, among other counts.
The federal government amassed a trove of evidence that allegedly links Stickney to the riot, using surveillance footage, flight records, phone location data, and the search history from his Google account.