An Elk Grove Village man was charged with breaching the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection, a decision he later described to an FBI agent as his “biggest mistake.”
Marcos Gleffe, 38, was hit with a handful of charges, including entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct on U.S. Capitol grounds, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday in federal court in Washington, D.C. A warrant for his arrest was included in the court filing.
Gleffe allegedly admitted to traveling from the Chicago area to attend a rally headlined by former President Donald Trump that preceded the chaos at the Capitol, where Trump’s supporters sought to disrupt the certification of the November election.
Gleffe came onto the feds’ radar when a tipster identified him in Facebook posts from that day, the court records show. FBI agents then mined cellphone data to determine that he’d entered the Capitol for nearly 15 minutes.
During a May 3 interview with the FBI, Gleffe admitted to entering the building but expressed regret, according to the complaint. He allegedly said he made “the biggest mistake going through the door,” adding that he “would not do it again if I could go back.”
Gleffe claimed he followed a group of people that declared they were “storming the Capitol,” although he insisted he just wandered through hallways and didn’t enter any rooms, according to the complaint. Gleffe was seen in surveillance footage carrying a “TRUMP 2020 MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” flag, the complaint states, and he later admitted to carrying two flags touting the billionaire Republican.
The court documents don’t list an attorney for Gleffe, and he didn’t respond to a message seeking comment.
Gleffe is at least the 14th person from Illinois charged in the sprawling federal investigation into the Capitol riot. On Tuesday, the former CEO of a Schaumburg tech firm became the first Illinoisan to plead guilty in the breach.
