A Metropolitan Transportation Authority employee and his wife appeared in federal court Thursday to face charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
Kevin Moore, who works for the M.T.A.’s department of buses, and Carol Moore, of Massapequa, N.Y., were arrested by the F.B.I. on Wednesday and appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlene Lindsay in Central Islip, N.Y., on Thursday to face the charges, both misdemeanors. They were released without bail.
The F.B.I. was first alerted to allegations of the Moores’ participation in the Capitol riot through an anonymous tip, according to the charges, which were unsealed Thursday.
The couple were identified through photographic evidence before and during the assault on the Capitol in Washington, D.C., the charges said. Security photographs showed a man and woman, said to be the Moores, entering the Senate Wing door at 3:12 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, walking back and forth through the lobby and then exiting about eight minutes later, according to the document. The charges say that Mr. Moore, now 61, “aggressively yelled and gestured at a law enforcement officer” while he was inside the lobby.
John Carman, a lawyer representing the Moores, did not dispute the couple’s presence at the Capitol that day, writing in an email that they were there to lawfully express “their genuine concerns about the integrity of the 2020 presidential election.”
He also said Mr. Moore was “giving aid to others who had been sprayed with Mace.”
Tim Minton, an M.T.A. spokesman, said on Thursday that Mr. Moore, whose job duties include repair work, has been on approved leave since last month and has not been penalized as a result of the charges. Officials declined to elaborate about the work history of Mr. Moore, who has been with the authority for nearly three decades.
“At the moment, he’s innocent until proven guilty,” Mr. Minton said.
A spokeswoman for Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, which represents roughly 41,000 bus and subway workers, declined to comment because she was unfamiliar with the details of Mr. Moore’s arrest.
The Moores are the latest of more than 1,200 people to be charged in the attack, in which a mob supporting then President Trump’s unfounded claim of election fraud breached the Capitol and ran amok inside. They have been accused of crimes ranging from misdemeanors, as with the Moores, to seditious conspiracy, a felony.
Mr. Moore was absent from work at the M.T.A. from Jan. 1 through Jan. 7, 2021, the charges said, and Ms. Moore, now 57, was located in Washington on Jan. 6 through electronic money transfers and IP addresses, according to the document.
The couple was not required to make a plea on Thursday, but will be ordered to appear in front of a judge in Washington at a later date.
About 710 people have pleaded guilty to crimes connected to Jan. 6 as of December, and approximately 170 have been convicted at trial.
