Attorney: 'Hard to believe' rioter zip-tie guy 'dumb enough' to leave so much evidence
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — Eric Munchel, inexorably linked to history now as “zip-tie guy,” provided federal prosecutors with a mountain of digital evidence that one criminal defense attorney says makes the case against him a layup.
“The charges could get way more serious,” said Nashville defense attorney Leah Wilson.
A video posted online appears to capture Munchel entering the Capitol. Several pictures taken inside engendered a swarm of internet sleuths seeking to find out his identity, and a video taken afterwards shows Munchel talking in a DC hotel lobby while having drinks.
“We had a couple guys come in here and record us all unbeknownst to us — as Antifa,” Munchel says in the video.
The Justice Department confirmed on Monday that they are considering “seditious conspiracy” charges against the insurrectionists which carries with it up to 20 years in federal prison.
Munchel will be in jail for the next eight days at least before he takes the long ride in a prison van up to Washington D.C. where he will face a judge and potentially receive a bail or supervised release hearing.
The 30-year-old traveled to D.C. with his mother. She lives in Florida, and he used to work at a bar in Fort Meyers called Doc Ford’s Rum Bar. Last summer, Kid Rock’s honky tonk in Nashville posted him on their Instagram, but his employment there had been terminated before he ventured to Washington.
Munchel had no criminal record before this week, and Wilson believes the mountain of evidence posted online before and after the violence gives prosecutors all the tools they will need in a trial.
“Of course they (will use that), and it’s amazing that they would be dumb enough to be creating evidence for the prosecutors in this case just to show their friends and post on social media, but it will get used against them,” Wilson said.
