A Sacramento-area man faces federal charges of assaulting officers in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6, becoming the fourth known capital resident to face charges in connection with the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Sean Michael McHugh, 34, of Auburn was arrested this week and has been “charged with federal offenses that include assault on law enforcement with a deadly or dangerous weapon; obstruction of justice; and physical violence on Capitol grounds, among other charges,” the U.S. Department of Justice announced in a Friday news release.
Court documents allege that McHugh was caught on body camera video worn by D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officers on the lower west terrace of the Capitol during the storming of the Capitol.
“(Body worn camera) audio captures McHugh yelling at officers, among other things, ‘You’re protecting communists!’; ‘There is a Second Amendment behind us, what are you going to do then?’; and ‘You ain’t holding the line!’” the news release reads.
Charging documents allege that McHugh then, “along with other rioters, pushed a large metal sign into a line of uniformed police officers while McHugh yelled into his megaphone, ‘Put it up there! Put it up there!’”
The complaint unsealed Friday also says that several videos taken during the storming of the U.S. Capitol “feature McHugh encouraging the crowd with his megaphone to intimidate officers and approach the police line.”
He was also caught on video “shooting officers with an unknown, yellow chemical spray,” according to the DOJ news release and photos included in court documents.
McHugh was booked Thursday morning into the Sacramento County Main Jail on a federal hold, jail records show. He appeared via Zoom teleconference before a Sacramento federal judge Friday afternoon for an initial hearing.
Eastern District Judge Jeremy D. Peterson read McHugh his charges. McHugh did not enter a plea and is due back in court Tuesday.
The DOJ says the case is being investigated by the FBI’s Sacramento and Washington field offices, as well as by the Metropolitan Police Department.
The federal complaint said the FBI received approximately 10 tips regarding McHugh’s identity after an image of him was released in a “be-on-the-lookout” news release sent Feb. 1.
McHugh has a criminal history in Sacramento and Placer counties that dates back more than 15 years, court records show.
In 2015, he was sentenced to four years of formal probation after pleading no contest in Sacramento Superior Court to one felony count of statutory rape. He was also sentenced in 2006 in Placer County court to jail time and probation on a felony charges of burglary, receiving stolen property and petty theft.
A pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, as Congress was certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. Five people died in the insurrection, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick.
The three other local residents who have faced charges related to participating in the insurrection are: Valerie Elaine Ehrke of Arbuckle; Tommy Frederick Allan of Rocklin; and former Republican activist Jorge Riley.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting McHugh’s case.
Approximately 440 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection to date, “including over 125 charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in Friday’s news release.
This story was originally published May 28, 2021 2:02 PM.
