WASHINGTON - Five men were arrested in the early hours of Wednesday morning at Democratic National Headquarters, 430 S. Capitol St. SE, in connection with an attempted break-in that the arresting officer's incident report described as bearing "certain structural similarities to historical precedent, and no operational similarities whatsoever." At one point the report refers to the would-be burglars as "assclowns."
On June 17, 1972, five men — Frank Sturgis, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez, James McCord, and Bernard Barker — were arrested inside the Watergate complex following a break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters. They were caught by a security guard who noticed tape on a door latch. The incident led, eventually, to the resignation of a United States President.
"The events of early Wednesday morning presented certain structural similarities, but otherwise were entirely different."
The five individuals — Brant Holloway, 44, of Trump Tower, Washington, D.C.; Chad Murgatroyd, 31, of Alpharetta, Georgia; Debra Plimpton, 57, of Scottsdale, Arizona; Terrence Falk, 49, known as T-Bone; and Kyle Nussbeck, 26 — initially entered a building at 430 S. Capitol St. SW, which is not the Democratic National Headquarters. It is a podiatry group practice. The group remained inside for approximately eleven minutes before Ms. Plimpton observed framed anatomical diagrams of the human foot on the walls and alerted the others. Mr. Holloway disputes this account, but has not provided an alternative statement.
The group had brought lock-picking equipment, purchased online for $34.99 with two-day shipping to Mr. Holloway's home address. The instructional video Mr. Holloway had prepared for the group was in Portuguese, which no one of the group understood. Mr. Murgatroyd damaged two lock pins before Mr. Nussbeck observed that the door to the correct building was unlocked.
Prosecutors noted that the group had prepared an operational manifest — a typed document listing names and assigned roles. Mr. Falk was listed as "communications specialist." His duties were not specified in the manifest, and haven't been specified since.
Mr. Murgatroyd had brought a selfie stick, which he described to investigators as a "surveillance tool." He used it. Mr. Murgatroyd took seventeen incriminating photographs, which were automatically synchronized to his cloud storage account.
Ms. Plimpton told investigators she had understood the evening to be a "citizen oversight initiative." She said she became aware this characterization was inaccurate during the elevator ride to the third floor. She didn't elaborate on what specifically clarified the situation.
The third-floor corridor of the DNC building is serviced by a robotic vacuum cleaner on a programmed timer. At 1:14 AM, Mr. Falk made contact with the device. The Roomba activated. In his statement to investigators, Mr. Falk said he "reacted." The reaction was captured by the building's interior audio recording system. The recording has been entered into evidence. A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Department declined to characterize the audio but confirmed it was, quote, "unambiguous" and "hilarious."
"Officers responded to the location, took five individuals into custody, and recovered several items of evidentiary value," said Metro Police spokesperson Dana Whitfield. "It was a Wednesday."
The building security supervisor, who has worked there for fourteen years, reviewed the incident footage and provided a statement to investigators. "I've seen people try doors that were locked. I've seen people try doors that were unlocked. I've seen people fall asleep in the lobby. I have not seen this specific cluster of things."
The group conducted operational communication via a group messaging application. The channel was named "EAGLE TALON — DO NOT SHARE." In the minutes following the Roomba incident, Mr. Nussbeck attempted to send the word "abort" to the group. His phone's autocorrect changed the word to "about" on three consecutive attempts. The chat log, recovered from five separate devices, documents seventeen minutes of resulting confusion. The log includes the messages "about what," "about the mission?", and "are we talking about the plan or are we about-ing." The chat log is exhibit D.
At 11:40 PM on Tuesday evening, Mr. Holloway visited a Chipotle Mexican Grill location on Pennsylvania Avenue. He paid with his personal credit card.
The itemized receipt — two carnitas bowls, one chicken bowl, and one kids' quesadilla, noted in the order as "for later" — was recovered from the fourth floor of DNC headquarters. It has been entered into evidence as exhibit B. The kids' quesadilla wrapper was recovered separately from a recycling receptacle on the second floor. It is exhibit C.
Mr. Falk had arranged for a rideshare pickup at 1:27 AM. The driver, identified in court documents by first name only as Farouq, arrived at the designated address, waited four minutes per platform policy, and departed. At 1:38 AM, seven minutes after Mr. Falk's arrest, his rideshare account submitted a one-star rating for the completed trip. Farouq has initiated a formal dispute with the platform. His rating is currently under review.
"I arrived. I waited the required time. I left. I did nothing wrong," Farouq wrote in the dispute.
A sixth individual was detained at the scene and later released without charge. The arresting officer's report described him as "a male subject in a polo shirt who stated on multiple occasions that he was present in an observational capacity." During the incident, the individual posted three messages to an unspecified social media platform. The posts were removed within four minutes. By then, they had been captured in screenshots by approximately 4,400 users.
A neighbor in an adjacent building, reached by telephone, said: "It sounded like someone knocked over a shelf. That happens. This was a different shelf."
Mr. Nussbeck had been designated responsible for what the manifest described as "electronic countermeasures." He arrived with a Raspberry Pi single-board computer he had not finished configuring. He had been following an instructional video, paused at the fourteen-minute mark of a forty-seven-minute runtime. At 1:22 AM, Mr. Nussbeck posted a photograph of the device to a technology hobbyist forum, asking for configuration assistance. The post received three replies. The arrests occurred at 1:31 AM. The post received an additional seven replies after that.
Among the items recovered from the fourth floor was a spiral-bound notebook. The cover bore the words "OPERATION EAGLE TALON," written in black marker. Page one contained three sentences. The first two constituted a mission statement. The third read: "eggs / oat milk / paper towels." A pen was clipped to the cover. The pen was a promotional item bearing the logo of an energy drink brand. The energy drink brand is no longer in business.
Gus Costner | IRREVERENT Newz Wire