Capitol rioter Kevin Daniel Loftus attempted to join the Russian army in order to fight against Ukraine, and almost boarded a plane to Turkey to get there, prosecutors said in a court hearing this week, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
However, Loftus, from Texas, was not permitted to board the Oct. 28 flight, because his probation for a misdemeanor charge connected to his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol required him to receive permission to travel outside the Dallas area.
Loftus, 56, told FBI agents that he had planned to travel from Turkey to the Republic of Georgia in order to receive a 90-day visa to Russia and connect with the armed forces there, federal prosecutor Eli Ross said.
Three days after the attempted flight to Turkey, court records show that Loftus was arrested in Iowa for an alleged probation violation.
Loftus told FBI agents that he was driving to Wisconsin in order to give his son some personal belongings before returning to Dallas so that he could turn himself in for a drunken driving charge there, Ross said, The Wall Street Journal reported.
After his Iowa arrest, Loftus was transferred to Washington, D.C., where he appeared before a magistrate judge on Tuesday.
Loftus has a hearing set for Monday before Judge Dabney Friedrich, who sentenced Loftus in March 2022 to three years of probation after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of parading inside the Capitol. This is considered a relatively low-level offense in the wave of cases connected to the Jan. 6 attack, according to The Wall Street Journal
Prosecutors had recommended a month in jail for Loftus, in addition to three years of probation, pointing to his posts on social media in which he bragged about his role in the riot.