‘Your president told us to be here,’ Missourian charged in Jan. 6 riot shouted at police
A Missouri man faces federal felony charges in connection with the Capitol riot, accused of struggling with officers and taking a police baton during the melee outside the building.
Cale Douglas Clayton, of Drexel, is the 20th Missouri resident to be charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection. The charges were unsealed when he was arrested Thursday.
According to court documents, the FBI received an online tip on Jan. 7, 2021, saying that Clayton was involved in the riot. Agents interviewed him on March 15, 2021, at his home in Drexel, which is south of Kansas City in Cass and Bates counties along the state line.
Clayton told them he had gone to Washington, D.C., to attend the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” rally and walked to the Capitol grounds afterward, the charging document says. He told agents that he was arrested “while attempting to return a police baton to the police.”
Clayton said he was released on the day of the Capitol insurrection without charges being filed “and that he did not riot, engage in violence, or commit any acts of vandalism,” the document says.
The FBI then identified Clayton from body-worn camera video from the Metropolitan Police Department. In the video, the document says, Clayton is wearing a red baseball cap, a red Kansas City Chiefs sweatshirt, khaki vest, blue jeans and dark boots and can be heard shouting at officers on the front lines outside the Capitol.
“Clayton was observed pointing his finger at officers and shouting, ‘We are going to win. You don’t have enough for all of us. You might hit me once or twice. You might spray me with pepper spray. I don’t give a f---. There ain’t enough for millions of people here and you know it.’”
From 3:20 to 3:25 p.m. that afternoon, the document says, the video shows Clayton underneath scaffolding outside the Capitol yelling and pointing at law enforcement officers. Among the things he shouts, it says: “Get that pepper spray out…not enough,” “You guys realize your President told us to be here. Your President! Hey, how does that make you feel? You’re defying your own f------ country!...Are you a Patriot? Or are you a f------ yes man?” And “think about it. (Inaudible) the revolution. You ain’t gonna stop it. It’s already happening…You guys are just gonna be a little speed bump along the way.”
At 4:23 p.m., the document says, video from a Montgomery County Police Department body-worn camera shows Clayton grabbing a police shield on two occasions and taking a police baton that had been dropped by a law enforcement officer.
The FBI also found video footage showing Clayton grabbing an Arlington County Police Department officer’s shield. About 4:30 p.m., Capitol surveillance footage shows police trying to recover the baton from Clayton, whose right hand makes contact with one of the officers.
“At approximately 4:30 p.m., MCPD attempted to take Clayton into custody, but Clayton resisted and grabbed the face shield of an MCPD officer’s helmet and pushed the officer backward,” the document says. He was taken into custody a few minutes later, transported to a police station and later released without charges, it says.
Clayton was charged Monday in U.S. District Court with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers; civil disorder; theft of government property; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; and disorderly conduct in the grounds or a Capitol building.
This story was originally published March 31, 2022 at 2:54 PM.
