Trump supporter photographed carrying Nancy Pelosi’s lectern during Capitol riots is arrested

A Florida man pictured proudly wielding Nancy Pelosi’s lectern during Wednesday's siege of the US Capitol has been arrested.

Images of Adam Christian Johnson grinning as he clutched the US House Speaker’s platform were widely shared online following the violent protests which left five people dead.

Johnson, 36, grabbed the lectern from the House of Representative chambers which he and his fellow fellow Trump supporters invaded during the riots.

He was quickly identified via social media as being the married father-of-five from Parrish, a community about 25 miles south of Tampa.

The 36-year-old had written on social media that he was in the American capital during Wednesday’s riot, but the post was subsequently deleted.

He has previously made disparaging comments about the Black Lives Matter movement online, according to local paper The Bradenton Herald.

The 36-year-old was arrested on Friday night and booked into Florida’s Pinellas County jail, according to prison records.

As of Saturday, there are now at least 14 people facing criminal charges in connection to Wednesday’s deadly mayhem, and at least another 40 people facing lesser charges.

Many of the latter group were released on Thursday, with an order from a judge at the District of Columbia Superior Court not to return to Washington unless for court appearances or meetings with lawyers.

They included Cleveland Meredith, who was charged with threatening Ms Pelosi as well as possession of an unregistered firearm and unregistered ammunition, and Richard Barnett, the man from Arkansas who was photographed sitting at the speaker’s desk.

“The shocking images of Mr. Barnett with his boots up on a desk in the speaker of the House’s office on Wednesday was repulsive,” Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen said in a statement on Friday.

“Those who are proven to have committed criminal acts during the storming of the Capitol will face justice.”

Mr Rosen also announced on Friday that the FBI would team up with Washington’s police department to jointly investigate the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who was injured while defending the building.

“Just because you’ve left the DC region, you can still expect a knock on the door if we find out you were part of the criminal activity at the Capitol,” Steven D’antuono, the FBI Washington Field Office’s assistant director in charge, told reporters in a telephone news briefing.

Capitol Police have said the Washington police’s homicide unit was probing the death.

Ms Pelosi ordered flags at the Capitol to be lowered to half-mast in honor of the fallen officer

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