A West Virginia legislator resigned from his post in the state’s House of Delegates after being charged for allegedly participating in Wednesday’s siege of the Capitol.
Derrick Evans submitted his letter of resignation on Saturday.
“The past few days have certainly been a difficult time for my family, colleagues and myself, so I feel it’s best at this point to resign my seat in the House and focus on my personal situation and those I love,” he said in a statement. “I take full responsibility for my actions, and deeply regret any hurt, pain or embarrassment I may have caused my family, friends, constituents and fellow West Virginians.”
The U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia announced on Friday that Evans is being charged with entering a restricted area.
Evans’s attorney, John Bryan, insisted that his client did not commit any criminal offenses on the day of the riots.
“In addition to being a duly elected member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, District 19, Mr. Evans is also an independent activist and journalist, who has long exercised his constitutional rights to engage in peaceful protest, activism. and amateur journalism,” Bryan said in a statement on Thursday. “At no point was Mr. Evans located in the crowd on the West side of the building, nor anywhere else on the Capitol grounds, where violence and destruction of property was, or had been, occurring. Evans was following an entirely different group, wholly detached from the tragic events which occurred that day.”
He added, “At the entrance through where Mr. Evans entered the Capitol, there had been no physical destruction, nor forced entry, of the door or windows by the crowd. Instead, the doors were physically opened — either by Capitol Police, or by other [protesters] who were already inside. At that point, the group surged in. From Mr. [Evans’s] point of view in the crowd, it appeared that the crowd was being allowed by law enforcement into the Capitol. He was not at the front of the group. Given the sheer size of the group walking in, Mr. Evans had no choice but to enter. Evans continued to film once inside.”
In a video that Evans posted on social media and later deleted, he can be heard saying, “We’re in! Keep it moving, baby,” but he yelled to others, “No vandalizing!”
