Geophysicist accused in Capitol riot named flight risk for trying to flee to Switzerland

The alleged rioter claims he was just trying to help the police and that Donald Trump lied to him

A rioter who allegedly attacked police while they were trying to help injured people during the Capitol riot and who then tried to flee to Switzerland has been jailed after being named a flight risk.

Jeffrey Sabol, a geophysicist who attended the Capitol insurrection and was seen on video apparently beating officers while they were trying to help injured rioters, was arrested and is ineligible for bond after trying to flee the country to Switzerland.

Judge Emmet Sullivan said releasing Mr Sabol would prove too risky, stating in a court ruling that the alleged rioter might be inclined to continue fighting "perceived tyranny" once he is free.

"He stripped a vulnerable police officer of his police baton," Mr Sullivan wrote the ruling. "He then used that stolen police baton to force another officer away from his post and into a mob of rioters who proceeded to viciously attack him, leaving him bleeding from the head."

Following the failed insurrection on 6 January, Mr Sabol said he "reached a mental breaking point" and traveled from Colorado, where he lived, to Boston, where he booked a flight to Switzerland, a county where he believed he could dodge potential extradition.

However, after seeing law enforcement officers waiting at the airport, he changed his plan, rented a car, and drove south. He was later stopped by police in Clarkstown, New York after other motorists noticed he was driving erratically.

When police found Mr Sabol, he was apparently "covered in blood" from severe, self-inflicted cuts on his arms and thighs. In court filings, Mr Sabol admitted that his "wounds are self-inflicted" and said he was "done fighting."

Mr Sabol's lawyers attempted to have him released from jail - where he has been since his arrest in mid-January - and allowed to stay with relatives in New York, arguing the change would help his mental health, and claiming that he has "recovered" from his "episode" and that Donald Trump had "lied to" him about the results of the 2020 election.

The defense team has tried to argue that Mr Sabol's actions on 6 January arose "in the context of a hysterical throng," effectively a "this isn't who he is" defense. The lawyers obtained letters from friends and others who knew him attesting to his "peaceful and nonviolent" nature and claimed that Mr Sabol was actually trying to help the officers, not harm them.

In court filings detailing the aftermath of his arrest, Mr Sabol is quoted to have said "I am wanted by the FBI" because "I was fighting tyranny in the DC Capitol."

The judge was not moved by the lawyers' story.

"The Court sincerely hopes that is true," Mr Sullivan wrote. "But the Court cannot ignore that Mr. Sabol presents a flight risk nonetheless. Considering the steps he took to flee to Switzerland to avoid arrest, Mr. Sabol is the epitome of a flight risk.