Capitol riot suspect drove to Ted Cruz’s house with truck of molotov cocktails to befriend him before 6 January

A federal judge ruled that an Alabama man must remain in police custody after it was revealed he intended to make contact with Senator Ted Cruz before the deadly Capitol riot.

Lonnie Coffman, 70, is currently being indicted on 17 counts following the attack on the Capitol on 6 January. He was arrested mere hours afterwards. The resident of Falkville pleaded not guilty on all counts.

However, despite this, “the record evidence strongly indicates that Mr Coffman ‘engaged in prior planning before arriving at the Capitol’ and ‘came to Washington, DC with the intention of causing mayhem and disrupting the democratic process,” the ruling read.

In light of all the evidence, and Mr Coffman being deemed a flight risk, he was not permitted to be freed until his later trial date.

“The court finds by a preponderance of the evidence, that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure Mr Coffman’s appearance as required if he were to be released pending trial,” District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kennedy concluded.

As made clear by documents published on Monday, he had driven to Washington, DC once before on 11 December 2020, information confirmed via a GPS tracking device. On this trip, he went to Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s home in the capital. After knocking on the door and not managing to get in contact with Sen. Cruz, he called his office to try to arrange a meeting.

A member of Sen. Cruz’s staff told investigators that Mr Coffman appeared “unbalanced” and “not 100 per cent there” when they spoke. They did not perceive him to be a danger, but was “odd enough to record” and Mr Coffman seemed keen to “help with the election fraud he saw”.

Senator Cruz is a significant voice in the Republican movement named ‘Stop the Steal’, peddling the unverified claims that the 2020 Presidential election was awash with widespread voter fraud. Before the riot at the Capitol building, he was a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump’s various lawsuits battling the verdict, despite their lack of evidence. Currently, there are still recounts of mail-in ballots taking place in counties in Arizona and Georgia.

Other figures in this movement include Senator Josh Hawley, who came under fire for gesturing in support of the crowd opposing the certification of President Joe Biden and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has prior links to QAnon and has been removed from her sub-committee duties for her conduct as a member of Congress.

It is believed that Mr Coffman was living in his truck for a week in the Washington, DC area. Video captured the truck parked outside the National Republican Club, which is near the Democratic National Committee Headquarters, on 6 January.

Investigators discovered various firearms inside the truck; a 9mm handgun, a rifle, a crossbow, machetes, camouflage smoke devices, a stun gun and various refill ammunition.

Most notably, there were 11 jars with what authorities deemed to be homemade napalm. At his Alabama home, more of this substance was uncovered in a search by authorities on 26 January. This was alongside a variety of other firearms and literature related to the Southwest Desert Militia, a group dedicated to monitoring and stopping Mexican border crossings.

Also, they uncovered a list that suggested a plan with instructions such as “use White Pages to identify people” and descriptions of people such as “Billionaire leftist traitor” and “G.E,. Obama lapdog”.

Mr Coffman is a twice serving Vietnam war veteran, who reportedly had a history of erratic behaviour, leaving for days on end and “was very closed-mouth about what he did”. According to what was told to the authorities in an interview, he spoke about coping with mental difficulties and “became a hermit after he separated from his wife”.

Previous people involved with the insurrection have had their mental health taken into account by judges, such as Jake Angeli, better known as the ‘QAnon Shaman’, and Landon Copeland, who both were referred for mental health assessments before further court dates.