WASHINGTON — A man who worked for the State Department as a diplomatic security officer was arrested by the FBI on Tuesday in Washington in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Kevin Alstrup faces the same four misdemeanor charges that have typically been given to nonviolent participants who entered the Capitol during the attack on Jan. 6, 2021: entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct, disorderly conduct and unlawful picketing or parading.
After Alstrup's email address popped up in a Google response to a government search warrant for devices that were inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, the FBI researched Alstrup and obtained information that he "was employed by the United States Department of State (USDOS) as a Diplomatic Security Officer (DSO)," according to an FBI affidavit. In that role, an FBI special agent wrote, Alstrup would have been "familiar with providing security and protection for high-ranking government officials or sensitive locations, like embassies."
Reached for comment, the State Department said it was aware of Alstrup's arrest, adding that he "was a third-party contractor providing uniformed officer services for the State Department."
The FBI found posts that Alstrup made on social media showing the outside of the Capitol on Jan. 6, which the FBI said illustrated the "obvious presence of barriers outside the U.S. Capitol building, which marked the restricted area."
Alstrup's supervisor confirmed Alstrup's identification in photos from inside the Capitol, the FBI said. The bureau determined that he spent about 28 minutes inside, including in the crypt, a room in the center of the Capitol on the first floor.
The FBI said that while he was in the building, Alstrup was taking photos of other rioters entering and exiting it through a broken window and that alarms "audibly and continuously sounded" as a Capitol Police officer told rioters to leave and gestured for them to do so.
After he left the Capitol, Alstrup was picked up on body camera video from a Washington police officer, the FBI affidavit said.
More than 1,250 people have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and federal prosecutors have secured about 900 convictions. Online sleuths have identified hundreds more participants in the attack, and the statute of limitations expires in less than two years, in early 2026.
