The 44-year-old man charged with trying to smuggle a machete and other knives into the U.S. Capitol on the same day that President-elect Donald Trump went to pay his respects to the late former President Jimmy Carter was arrested on a series of charges. It seems like there was an incident. Number of anti-Trump posts on social media.
Mel J. Horn faces multiple charges of possession of a dangerous weapon after attempting to enter the Capitol Visitor Center with a machete, two folding knives and a box cutter knife, according to court documents. However, he was released a few days before Inauguration Day.
X's account, linked to a handle associated with his name and his phone number found in court documents, shows he has made several anti-Trump posts in recent days.
The account called both the president-elect and billionaire Elon Musk “shitholes” while replying to a Trump parody account that asked, “Do you like Elon Musk?”
US Capitol machete suspect granted pretrial release days before Trump's inauguration
Mel Horn (Mel Horn/Instagram)
Another post On New Year's Eve, he claimed the two had “consistently acted as enemies of the state.” On Dec. 9, the account posted, “F— them!”
Earlier in the day, the account shared a message of prayer while again calling Trump an “enemy.”
“Praying for us all,” the post reads. “Regardless of how much of an enemy of the American people he actually is, he is our elected president, so I pray for his health and safety, and I pray that Jesus actually touched his heart and that he I pray that you will show me the way.”
Jimmy Carter memorial: Suspect identified in Capitol security breach during Trump visit
Another post called for Trump to be prosecuted in response to a tweet about the Capitol Police officer who shot and killed protester Ashli Babbitt on January 6th.
“Trump should be brought to justice because he rallied people and sent them…” she wrote with two emojis. “He caused the girl's death.”
Horne's mother previously accused Horne of drug addiction and mental illness and asked the court to remove him from her home and order him to undergo mental health treatment.
U.S. Capitol Police stopped a man at a security checkpoint as he tried to enter the Capitol after finding a machete and three knives in his bag. (U.S. Capitol Police)
Other posts include former Congresswoman and President Trump's nominee for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, and recently It also included insults towards the president. Daniel Penny has been acquitted of controversial subway strangulation after the man threatened to kill other passengers.
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Capitol Police declined to comment on the tweet.
“To protect our case, we cannot discuss the public investigation,” a spokesperson told FOX News Digital.
Mel Horn (Mel Horn/Instagram)
Horn told Capitol Police the knife was a landscaping tool after placing it in an X-ray tray at a magnetometer inspection point in the Capitol Visitor Center, according to the affidavit.
The officers pointed out that there was more than six inches of snow on the ground and that the city had declared a snow emergency several days earlier, and asked when the last time he had done landscaping work.
read the police affidavit:
”[Horne] …He advised that he was not coming from or on his way to a landscaping job,” the affidavit continued.[Horne] He said he is homeless and takes these items with him wherever he travels. ”
Police arrested a man who tried to bring a machete and three knives into the Capitol just hours before Trump's arrival.
President Trump, who attended the Carter Memorial on the day Horne allegedly tried to smuggle the weapon, will be inaugurated for a second term on January 20.
A D.C. Superior Court judge granted Horn conditional release pending trial, according to court records. Details of his release conditions were not immediately released.
Another man, Adrian Hinton, was also arrested that day on suspicion of attempting to set a vehicle on fire near the Grant Memorial. He is scheduled to appear in court later this week.
Horn's arrest report identifies him as a prior felon, but the nature of his criminal record was not immediately clear. He was incarcerated in 2019, but the Department of Corrections told Fox News Digital it was not authorized to release records related to that case. He was charged with numerous misdemeanors in 2004, according to court records.
A snowplow removes snow in front of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2025. Horn told police the machete allegedly found was one of his landscaping tools, police said. They noticed that the city had just had a snowstorm. (Reuters/Marco Jurica)
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“My son lives in our house (rent free), but over the past year he has started using drugs to get high and change his mind,” his mother, Brenda Horne, said in the civil complaint. argued in the letter. “Now that he has become violent, we are afraid and want him removed from the house.”
She asked the judge to order him removed from the property and force him to undergo mental health treatment.
According to court documents, the case was ultimately dismissed without prejudice, and Horne agreed to leave her parents' home for a year on the condition that she was only allowed to return off-site to care for her bonsai. did.
FOX News' Julia Bonavita contributed to this report.
