U.S. Capitol Police officers arrested Austin Olson, 27, on Wednesday as the Westland, Mich., man tried to enter the Capitol “with a flare gun, torch lighter and bottles of fuel” and smelling “like he doused part of his clothing with fuel,” Capitol Police stated.
Officers “found what appears to be a manifesto and a letter to Congress,” the latter “focused on the man’s opinions on the war in the Middle East,” Capitol Police stated.
“If our officers did not stop this man, yesterday would have been a very different story than this one,” stated Thomas Manger, U.S. Capitol Police chief. “All of our employees continue to work together around the clock during this heightened security environment.”
The Anti-Defamation League said its analyst’s found Olson’s social media accounts.
That included “a Rumble channel where Olsen uploaded a video of himself reading his ‘letter to Congress’ on Nov. 4. In it, he expresses a variety of antisemitic, anti-Israel and anti-government views, alleging that elected leaders serve the interests of Israel over the American people,” the ADL stated.
“Olsen can be heard saying, ‘The problem is Israel; the problem is you. You have been bought and we have been sold into slavery and called it capitalism. Israel controls our media, our corporations, they control you and they own us’—clearly embracing the antisemitic myth that Jews have outsized power,” the ADL added. “On X, Olson has also expressed a range of far-right tropes and antisemitic views, including endorsing the great replacement theory and the antisemitic myth of deicide.”
