Prosecutors warn Florida MAGA rioter intends to meet up with fugitive co-conspirator: report

On Friday, CBS News' Scott MacFarlane, the key authority on the January 6 Capitol riot prosecutions, reported that the Justice Department is asking a federal court to deny a request by a "high-level" defendant, Joseph Daniel Hutchison of Lakeland, Florida, to travel home to have a birthday party.

Of particular concern to federal prosecutors, reported MacFarlane, is that Hutchison "intends to socialize with his co-defendants," including potentially Jonathan Pollock, who is a wanted fugitive and on whom the FBI has posted a $15,000 reward.

Hutchison is accused by federal prosecutors of pulling aside a metal barricade on the Capitol grounds to allow the rioters through, after which he "charged the line of police officers and began throwing punches" and then "kicked the line of police officers [while] Jonathan Pollock seized a riot shield which he thrust into an officer’s throat and face before thrusting the shield towards another officer." Hutchison later "punched an officer who stumbled" and "grabbed the jacket sleeve of another officer before throwing them out of his way."

Nearly 800 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol attack so far, with two convicted and roughly a quarter taking plea deals. The charges range from misdemeanor unlawful picketing and trespassing, to assaulting police officers as Hutchison is accused of, to seditious conspiracy charges against high-ranking members of the paramilitary group the Oath Keepers.