A New York lawyer who once filed 9/11 conspiracy theory lawsuit is charged with assaulting police at Capitol riot

• A New York attorney was arrested this week on several January 6 charges.
• Prosecutors used facial recognition technology to identify John O'Kelly in photos from the siege.

Federal prosecutors used facial recognition technology to identify and arrest a New York attorney on January 6 charges this week.

John O'Kelly, 66, is charged with two felonies and four misdemeanors related to his role in the insurrection, including civil disorder, assaulting, resisting or impeding officers, and disorderly conduct, according to court documents.

Prosecutors say O'Kelly tried to disarm police officers who were guarding the Capitol on January 6, 2021, by grabbing an officer's baton and "attempting to wrestle it" from his hands. O'Kelly also pushed a metal bike rack into multiple officers during the siege, according to the government.

NBC News was first to report O'Kelly's arrest Thursday. According to the outlet, O'Kelly previously worked for the Lawyers' Committee for 9/11 Inquiry, a group that believes pre-planted explosives were responsible for the fall of the Twin Towers in 2001.

In 2019, O'Kelly filed a lawsuit on behalf of the group against the Justice Department in an effort to present the organization's conspiracy theory to a grand jury. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in March 2021, and the decision was upheld on appeals five months later.

A representative for the organization told NBC that O'Kelly no longer worked with the group.

Prosecutors ultimately identified the attorney thanks to a tip from online sleuths, according to court documents. The tipster said they used open source photo ID software to identify O'Kelly in photos from the riot, and federal investigators later confirmed his identity using his DMV photo, according to court documents.

Online sleuths had come to know the yet-identified O'Kelly as "MidWhiteCrisis," according to NBC, due to his inclusion on the FBI's Capitol Violence page.

O'Kelly did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

More than 900 people have been arrested in connection with the Capitol attack and more than 400 have pleaded guilty thus far.